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A LITTLE LAND 
AND A LIVING 



A LITTLE LAND 
AND A LIVING 



BY 

BOLTON HALL 

Author of "Three Acres and Liberty," "Things 
AS They Are," "Free America," 

ETC., ETC. 

WITH A LETTER 

AS AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

WILLIAM BORSODI 

Introduction to Fourth Edition by 
JOSEPH FELLS 



^ 



NEW YORK 
THE ARCADIA PRESS 

1909 






Copyright, 1908, by 
BOLTON HALL 



( AsLJ^lgJJ^\M^eMA ) 






FOREWORD 

INTEREST in the "little lands" from which 
men may make a living continues to grow 
and spread. A money panic does more than 
scare people — it sets them thinking how they can 
protect themselves against a recurrence of this 
thing. That necessarily turns their thoughts to 
the land as the source of wealth and indepen- 
dence. It is because of this growing desire on 
the part of the people to know what can be done 
with small areas, that the author has written this 
book. Every chapter has been submitted to some 
expert for correction and revision, and the author 
gladly acknowledges indebtedness to Mr. George 
T. Powell, President of the Agricultural Ex- 
perts Association; Professor W. G. Johnson, of 
the Orange Judd Co. ; Mr. R. F. Powell, Super- 
intendent of the Philadelphia Vacant Lots As- 
sociation; Miss Kate Sanborn, Mr. Howard 



FOREWORD 

Goldsmith, of the Suffolk Farms Co.; Mr. Sam- 
uel Milliken, and others for valuable aid and 
suggestions. The footnotes give credit to other 
sources of information. 

The reception accorded by press and public to 
my book, Three Acres and Liberty^ which Mac- 
millan published a year ago, was a pleasing proof 
of the interest already awakened in this matter. 
Six editions of that book have been issued, and 
indications are that others will follow. 

But no one volume could begin to exhaust 
so fruitful a subject, and the readers of Three 
Acres and Liberty will not find A Little Land 
and a Living in any sense a repetition of its 
predecessor. The reasons for its publication at 
this time are numerous and cogent, many of 
them being set forth in Mr. Borsodi's letter, 
which follows this foreword. Others may wisely 
be left to its readers to infer. 

Those who are facing the problem of rearing 
a family on a weekly wage, with the purchasing 
power of the dollar decreasing, will find much 
in this book to encourage them to reach out for 
a better, saner living, through cultivating the lit- 
tle lands. 



FOREWORD 

Those who know most of farming believe that 
it is only a question of once learning what to 
do and how to do it, to draw many of the city 
workers to the outlying lands. This A Little 
Land and a Living aims to do; not to induce 
the unfamiUar to rush headlong into farming, 
but to encourage those who feel the pressure of 
city life to study how they may get away from 
the overcrowded city into nearby country, where 
the gardens may first be made an adjunct to the 
income and later, perhaps, prove the source of 
the income. 

Mr. George T. Powell writes: 

" You have brought together many facts and 
information that should be helpful and be an 
aid to many who, for the want of specific infor- 
mation, do not realize what they might do on a 
small land-holding. 

"If there could be lectures given on this sub- 
ject in the tenement districts it would be of spe- 
cial value. I advocated this in a lecture at the 
United Charities Building on *How to Help 
the City Poor to Get Out to the Land.' 

" They do need specific instruction, first, where 



FOREWORD 

they are, and should then be given some aid in 
reaching cheap land, so that they might make a 
start. I believe that if a regular course of in- 
struction of the simple, plain kind could be given 
in these parts of the city it would be of real 
value." 

That is sound sense. 

BOLTON HALL. 



CONTENTS 

"A Little Land and a Living" ... . .Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The Letter That Prompted This Book Written to the 

Author by William Borsodi 17 

A Many-Sided Problem of International Scope — How 
Poverty, Insanity, Vice, Might Have Be^n Prevented — 
Objections to the Cry " Back to the Farm " — You Show 
How to Make Farm Life Pay — Does the City Give Com- 
fort? — The Curse of "Credit " — ^Where " Home " is Not 
" Sweet Home " — No " Sweetness and Light " Here — 
" Oh, the Cold and Cruel Winter " — Waiting for Jobs 
That Do Not Come — " The Bread Line " and Other 
Lines — The Misery Seen in Missions — '* Three Acres " 
Would Mean " Liberty " — City Amusements and Other 
"Elevating" Things — Statistics That Give False Im- 
pressions — The Improvldency of the Poor — Dire Neces- 
sity — " The Great White Way " as Seen by Rich and 
Poor — The Daoice Halls and the Street — No Real Suffer- 
ing and Destitution on Farms — The Educated and Inex- 
perienced Adapted for Agriculture — Scope for " Knowl- 
edge Learned of Schools " — Toil and Payment of Farm 
Life — The World's Ideal Farming Country — Agricul- 
ture's Golden Age — Independence in Agriculture — Land 
Enough for a Living — One Point of Honest Difference — 
Who Should Go Back to the Farms? — Who Would Bene- 
fit by Such a Movement? — Semi- Agricultural Colonies 
— Other Letters from Railroad Men — A Pleasing Ten- 
dency — What I Have Done — Write a New Book — The 
Cause and the Remedy — Foreigners Live More Cheaply 
— Concerted Action Necessary — Many Men of Many 
Minds— The Real Hope. 

CHAPTER I 

Life Not Merely Making a Living 77 

Opportunities Past and Present — Chances Lost — New 
Chance — Intelligence — Slums a Symptom — The Origin of 
Wealth — Capital — ^An Acre Enough — Possibilities — Thor- 
oughness — Available Land — New Methods — Intensive 
Farming — Trucking — ^Dairying — How They Do In Japan 
— Denmark — Jersey — 'We Can Do Better. 



10 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER II 

PAGE 

Buying a Garden 85 

Ownership — Sources of Information — Agents— Wliere 
Not to Go — Fertility Secondary — Soil Never Barren — 
What to Buy — -Run-down Farms — Cheapness Relative — 
Where to Buy — How to Buy — Don't Fear Debt — Bor- 
rowing Money — Insurance — The Monopoly — Unpi'oduct- 
ive Lots — Use and "Improvements" — Make Unused 
Land Pay — To Buy or to Build. 

CHAPTER III 

Vacant Lot Gahdening 95 

Charity vs. Self-Help — Opportunities — Assistance — Co- 
operation — Little Government Needed— Cost — Health and 
Success — A Variety of Returns — One-half Acre — Large 
Profits — Land, not Capital, Necessary. 

CHAPTER IV 

Reasonable Prospects 105 

Living- Costly — Hunger — ^Value of Food Products — What 
a Man Wants to Know — Fortune in an Acre — Stony 
Wold Record — Old Methods — New Methods — Acre Profits 
— Irrigated — Shearer's Success — O'Brien's — Hartman's — 
Small Gardens — A Woman's Patch — A 40 x 50 Garden — • 
A City Backyard — Five Cents per Square Foot — Glade 
Lands — An Illinois Plot — A Michigan Experiment — 
Farmers as Robbers — Youthful Gardeners — ^With Brains — 
Average Yields — Census Reports — ^WTiat Averages Imply 
— Bailey's Estimate — Philadelphia Gardens — Uncommon 
Vegetables — Other Callings Similar — Scientific Farming 
— The Farmer's Returns — ^What Could Be Made — What 
He Makes. 

CHAPTER V 
Record Yields 131 

Possibilities — Production and Cost — A Standard — Rec- 
ords — A Garden for Five — School Gardens — Small Plots 
— Yields of " Poor " Soil — Celery — Texas Onions — Corn 
Record — Strawberry Yields — Rhubarb — Christmas Trade 
— A House-Cellar Patch — Forcing Cellar — Onions by New 
Culture — Asparagus. 

CHAPTER VI 

Ways of Working 149 

The Home Garden — First — Working the Soil — A Begin- 
ner's Garden — Save Labor — Fruit — Planting and Trans- 
planting — One Crop Risky — Companion Cropping— Spe- 
cialties- — Marketing — Succession Crops — Deepening Culti- 
vation— Subsoiling — Soil Enriches Itself — Insects Smoth- 
ered by Ashes — Winter Plov/ing to Kill — Spraying — Fer- 
tilizers — Irrigation — Drainage — Dry Farming — Fancy 
Packing. 



CONTENTS 11 

CHAPTER VII 

PAGE 

MoxEY AND Time REauiRED 173 

The Teacher of Fools — Success — Failure — " Thlnk-box " 
Secrets — Large Capital Not Needed — -Specialties as 
Money-Makers — The Value of Money — Equipment — Out- 
lay and Income — Five»-Acre Investment — Ten Acres 
Costly — Cost of Starting — Union Wagea in Different 
Cities — Hand vs. Horse Cultivation — Crops Every Month 
— The Condition of the Farmer. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Growing Under Glass 187 

Early Vegetables — A Sample Hot-bed — Heating by Fire 
— Cost and Returns — Flowers Better Than Vegetables — 
Greenhouses — Success. 

CHAPTER IX 
Animals for Profit 194 

Animals on the Farm — A Snail Park — Frogs — Turtles — 
Bass — Pheasants — Dogs — Cats — Silver Foxes — Expenses 
and Receipts — The Busy Bee. 

CHAPTER X 

Fruit Growing 211 

American Supremacy — Development — Improvement — Ap- 
ples, Quality, Thinning — Peaches — Chances of Success- 
Protecting Grapes — Pears — Plums — Quinces — Cherries — 
Persimmons — Small Fruit — Extra Culture — Strawberries 
— Bush Fruit — Exceptional Returns. 

CHAPTER XI 
Horticulture 227 

The Market — Violets — Greenhouses — Diseases — Roses — 
Chrysanthemums — Poppies — Flowers in the Street — 
Sweet Peas and Wild Flowers — Orchids — Plants for 
Renting — Floriculture. 

CHAPTER XII 
Building 237 

Clearing the Land — Lumbermen Buy — Profitable Trees — 
Building a Home — " Hickory Bungalow " — Portable 
Dwellings — Remodeled Buildings — Comfortable Cabins — 
Water Supply. 



13 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIII 

PAGE 

Co-operation in Opeeation 24.7 

Toll Without Reward — " Back to the Land "—How to 
Get Land — Co-operation — Man's Natural Job — Organiza- 
tion — In Europe — In America — Fellowship Farm — The 
Arden Colony — Farming a Business — Changes Imminent. 

CHAPTER XIV 

To Start Sanitarium Work 259 

Outdoor Life Effective — Dr. Trudeau's Plan — Bad Con- 
ditions — Convalescents Work — The Earth for Men — Lo- 
action Important — The Superintendent's Value — The 
Money Needed — Supplementary Industries — ^Preserving, 
Baking, Selling, etc. — Start Now. 

CHAPTER XV 

The Profession op Farming 269 

Agriculture, Past and Future — The Average Farmer — 
The Boy and the Garden — The Trained Farmer — Salaries 
Await Him — Fresh Discoveries — Fields for Investigation 
— Grown from the Best — The Profit of the Earth — Mon- 
opoly Conditions — The Value of the Farm — How to Pro- 
ceed—The Aim of This Book. 



INTRODUCTION 
TO THE THIRD EDITION 

HAVING seen the independence, health, education 
and prosperity that come from free direct use of 
land, I ordered a large number of the first edition 
of " A Little Land and a Living " sent to a list of leading 
moulders of public opinion. Although I had not at that 
time read the book, I knew that Mr. Hall saw " the Land 
Question " and would bring it out in theory as well as 
in the practice of those who might be induced to get back 
to the land. 

The effect of the book, if I am to judge of its reception 
by the press, from the letters that I have had, and from 
the reports of those who have availed themselves of its 
instruction, has more than justified the expenditure. 

The natural thing would be to have our cities sur- 
rounded by small homes, each with its bit of garden; be- 
yond that the truck farms; beyond that the pasture lands, 
and beyond that again the forest and the wilderness. 
Instead of this, our crazy system of taxation gives us wil- 
dernesses in the heart of the city, the workers piled one 
on top of the other in tenements, and the farmer usually 
pushed to outlying lands where the difficulties and disad- 
vantages of living are greatly increased. 



INTRODUCTION 14 

TO THE THIRD EDITION 

The immediate remedy for this is to show how land can 
be used to produce a living and how land alone is neces- 
sary that men may live. To learn how to use such lands 
as are available near the cities is a long step to this end, 
and if all the little lands were furnishing a living for some 
one, we would be able to accommodate in our country hun- 
dreds of millions more than the eighty millions that we 
now think of as overcrowding us. 

I have made a beginning of this practical teaching at 
our Mayland, near Southminster, England, which is be- 
coming a model village, with small or intensive cultivators 
predominating. There is growing there an open air school, 
and consequently an object lesson to the grown people 
throughout the county and the country. The establishment 
of this new type of school for children means that when 
the children come to an age for selecting their occupa- 
tion they will probably turn to land cultivation, with a 
better chance of success than their fathers. 

I believe in catching the farmer when he is young. We 
must give the child an education under the right auspices 
if we are to continue to keep his interest in the land. I 
hope that in future the greater part of the people in the 
country will continue to live in the country, but we have 
got to show them the advantage of doing so. Where the 
school comes in is this: We cannot well take the children 
of farmers and small cultivators, who are used to an out- 



15 INTRODUCTION 

TO THE THIRD EDITION 

door life, and imprison them within the close walls of a 
school for the greater part of a day, if we hope to retain 
their health while we instruct them. The new school is 
simply giving facilities for teaching in the open air what 
is taught at present in a closed building. That is of course 
when the weather permits, though at Mayland we shall 
have a building protected from the weather, to be used 
when it is too cold or too wet for outside work. There 
will be sheds, however, in which the children even then 
will spend most of their school time. In connection with 
the school there will be a bath-pool. That is to keep them 
clean outside, while we fill them with knowledge inside. 
I have simply applied to the county to provide the ordinary 
teaching staff and equip a larger school. I am going to 
provide the bath, and skilled teachers for the purpose of 
giving the children good school garden instruction. 

Mr. Hall has warned his readers against thinking that a 
living on the land can be had without both careful and 
intelligent work and thought. He has given instances of 
extraordinary yields and even of average crops with a cau- 
tion that these results may be repeated, but that they can 
be repeated only through work of hands and head; never- 
theless these points can hardly be over-emphasized. The 
dunce and the sluggard are less likely to starve in the 
country than in the city, but they are just as unlikely to 
secure a competence. 



INTRODUCTION 16 

TO THE THIRD EDITION 

In " A Little Land and a Living " Mr. Hall has sho^vn 

the principles which must be mastered in order to secure 

a living from the land, and in " Money Making in Free 

America " he has shown the principles with which one 

must master, either consciously or unconsciously, in order 

to secure a great fortune. 

Joseph Fels. 
Philadelphia. 



By Way of Introduction 
THE LETTER 

THAT PROMPTED 

THIS BOOK 

Written to the Authof 

BY 

WILLIAM BORSODI 



My Dear Mr, Hall: 

In making myself acquainted with your 
book, " Three Acres and Liberty," I have done 
a great deal more than just fingering it. I am 
convinced that this work will fill a pronounced 
want and become, in its line, an epoch-maker. 

I thank you for referring to me in your auto- 
graph introduction as your " co-worker." You 
certainly hit the nail on the head. So far as 
concerns the desire of getting the people back 
to the farm, I am your " forerunner," and noth- 
ing would make me happier than to be your 
"co-worker" in a practical way and to see 
crowds taking advantage of the proposition your 
book so ably puts before them. If I were 
wealthy I would circulate this book broadcast. 
The needy would profit by its suggestions, and 
I should feel amply repaid for the money ex- 
pended. 

More than thirty-five years ago, I started to 
think and to reflect. Since then, naturally, I 



A LITTLE LAND 20 

AND A LIVING 

have found out my early mistakes. I was at- 
tracted for the most part of that long period by 
the teachings of our conservative, reactionary, 
liberal Henry George, and even " my " own sa- 
cred " policies " and ideas attracted me. Social- 
ism in Germany is very good ; anarchism in Rus- 
sia is not a bit less good, but these " isms " are 
not good everywhere, nor are they good for all 
the time. There are other remedies and policies 
for the alleviation of the degrading social con- 
ditions that confront us everywhere ; but there is 
one which is as efficient now as ever, in every 
land, in all places and at all times — farm life. 

A MANY-SIDED PROBLEM OF INTERNATIONAL 
SCOPE. 

1 have in mind a problem, complicated and 
far-reaching in its being and influence, because 
it vitally concerns every large city of all coun- 
tries; a problem of international scope — the 
over-crowding of large cities with unadaptable 
laborers, all seeking a livelihood where the oppor- 
tunities don't increase in proportion. And as 
soon as practical methods expedite the solution 
of this many-sided problem, the lives and des- 



21 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

tinies of millions of working men, women and 
children now living only half -lives will be en- 
larged and improved. 

HOW POVERTY, INSANITY, VICE, MIGHT HAVE 
BEEN PREVENTED. 

In all countries and climates I have found 
that all people would benefit to a surprising de- 
gree by keeping close to the land, and that thou- 
sands of those now in the hospitals, lunatic 
asylums and penitentiaries, or who are living in 
abject poverty, or on the borders of that state, 
could have kept in healthful conditions had they 
gone back to the land in good time and remained 
there. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE CRY "BACK TO THE FARM." 

Mine is not a mere judgment or opinion based 
on a moment's observation or consideration. I 
have spoken with all classes and grades — the 
" under dogs,", the middlemen, professional men, 
statesmen, philanthropists and sociologists, so- 
cialists and retired farmers, and even with poli- 
ticians, only to find that the majority of them 
have something against the " back to the farm " 



A LITTLE LAND 22 

AND A LIVING 

proposition. The preponderance of opinion is 
that while it is desirable to own a plot of land 
and a home, farming does not pay, and that you 
cannot keep the people on the farm once their 
" ambitions " are aroused by the alluring so- 
called " opportunities " of the city, and that you 
cannot induce them to go back to the farm again 
after a taste of city life, however disagreeable. 

YOU SHOW HOW TO MAKE FARM LIFE PAY. 

Your book proves that farm life does pay. 
If the city dweller can be made to see this and 
to realize what a small percentage city life pays, 
it will be easy to arouse sufficient interest in a 
movement which will eventually bring us to 
healthful conditions and to a race that will feel 
content on the farm. Money-making attracts 
every one; those with much money, yet want 
more; those with some, wish to increase it; and 
those with little or none are ever in a maelstrom 
of passion for money. Certainly it would at- 
tract a large number of those who now shovel 
snow for the mere purpose of self-preservation, 
and those of starved physiques, who can only 



28 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

look on while the world moves, and others whose 
life is incessant toil with practically nothing to 
show for it but ill health, a wife and children in 
stuffy and gloomy half- furnished, broken down 
boxes of flats in " houses " where twenty to forty 
families live in similar circumstances. 

DOES THE CITY GIVE COMFORT? 

New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and prac- 
tically every large city in the United States, are 
the scenes of heart-rending struggles for exist- 
ence. Not only in our country, but in every 
country is this so. It is only at our own doors 
that such scenes strike our sympathies and 
awaken our pity, and bring to our face a glow 
of shame that such is the living of millions of 
our countrymen. 

Take a trip through the " living " sections of 
our large cities — not only the slums and sections 
where foreigners herd together like so many cat- 
tle. I mean the homes of the poor American 
bred or the naturalized Americans, be they Irish, 
Scotch, English, German, Italian, or what not — 
those who are making the United States what 



A LITTLE LAND 24 

AND A LIVING 

it is ; the toilers, proud to call themselves Ameri- 
cans. Yes, take a trip down any of those ave- 
nues or through those streets — they are found 
everywhere. Look into the apartments through 
the dilapidated shutters, you will see all that is 
necessary. You go by hundreds of houses not 
properly protected by the windows against cold, 
nor against the burning sun in summer. The 
landlord gets " only " enough to pay his taxes, 
to make only absolutely necessary repairs on the 
buildings — more to protect the property from 
dilapidation than to give comfort to the tenants 
- — and for a few incidentals, so he cannot afford 
to keep them in good shape. In most cases you 
will be shocked by the scanty and broken-down 
furnishings that fill these rooms; or, if the fur- 
nishings are in any way respectable-looking, you 
are safe in believing them to be the outfit of 
some instalment house, on whose basis many of 
the tenants of three or four rooms furnish their 
homes. 

THE CURSE OF *' CREDIT " 

There are hundreds of these house-furnishing 
firms selling on credit in New York and other 



25 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

cities. Some of these houses carry thousands 
of such accounts, so you can judge for yourself 
how many persons are sleeping on what the mar- 
shal may take away in the morning because four 
weeks' instalments of fifty cents or a dollar are 
in arrears. 

WHERE "home" is NOT " SWEET HOME." 

During the sfummer their houses are prac- 
tically untenantable. In the evenings you will 
find the occupants sitting in the streets, on the 
roofs, in the parks, or in other places more at- 
tractive to the body and soul. " There's no place 
like home " is a farce to more than 75 per cent, 
of the inhabitants of every large city. 

Has it not come to a bad pass when cities 
like New York or Chicago and others have to 
grant special permission for the millions of ten- 
ement dwellers to utilize the public parks and 
piers and playgrounds as lodging houses, be- 
cause their homes are so stifling during the dog 
days as to make it a torture for a human being 
to sleep in them? Is it not as revolting to see 
families sleeping on fire-escapes and roofs in 



A LITTLE LAND 26 

AND A LIVING 

summer ; or in winter to read of persons freezing 
to death in the streets and even in their scanty, 
ill-protected houses? Or to listen to the thou- 
sand appeals from as many charitable organiza- 
tions and institutions, calling for aid in the re- 
lief of the untold misery of the poor, all the 
year round? 

NO "SWEETNESS AND LIGHT" HERE. 

Picture the " happy homes " of hundreds of 
thousands of poor, who live in dilapidated struc- 
tures that occupy the space needed for ventila- 
tion and light — the back yards. Thus sand- 
wiched in they are surrounded on all sides by 
higher houses, shut off from sunlight all day, 
their only view of the outside world being the 
back windows of the flats of families little better 
situated than themselves; their avenue of en- 
trance into their little world being a dark, 
gloomy, foul alley, often used as a refuse dump. 
There is where you can also see hard-working 
Americans " living " — freezing well-nigh to 
death in winter and fairly roasting alive in sum- 
mer! And these are the people who are the first 



27 



THE LETTER THAT 
PROMPTED THIS BOOK 



objects of charity if the man of the house be 
out of work. They live without thought of the 
morrow; they cannot do otherwise, for their in- 
come hardly covers living expenses. There is 
where the children, if they survive, are compelled 
to help out by working in factories at an early 
age, stunting their youth, undermining their 
health, and befitting themselves for only the 
meanest sort of labor in after years. 

"OH, THE COLD AND CRUEL WINTER!" 

This winter proved to be one of the severest 
in misery for the poor and unemployed — every 
winter is, more or less. But this year's scenes of 
misery were more pronounced. Everywhere 
workers were cast out, the army of street beg- 
gars and vagrants and fakirs increased appar- 
ently an hundredfold, and the free municipal 
and mission lodging houses, not counting the 
five, ten and fifteen cent varieties, turned away 
thousands of men and women, whose only 
refuge from the cold and storms were alleys, 
doorways, vacant lots and unused trucks. In 
Pittsburg a conservative observer estimated the 



A LITTLE LAND 28 

AND A LIVING 

unemployed alone at 15,000; in Chicago 75,000, 
while here in New York it was reported that 
90,000 members of organized labor were without 
jobs and that there were 30,000 vagrants. 

WAITING FOR JOBS THAT DO NOT COME. 

At the time the mercury was at its lowest, I 
happened to pass along Union Square early in 
the morning, plowing my way through several 
inches of snow, which had fallen the night be- 
fore. I noticed on one corner a group of four 
poorly-clad men, hands stuffed deep into pock- 
ets, while they shivered and shivered, nose, 
cheeks and lips blue and purple from the cold. 
From what I could see they were trying to 
secure work at shoveling snow. Three houi'S 
later, returning down-town, I passed the same 
group — still waiting for the " job." 

"THE BREAD LINE" AND OTHER LINES. 

The old bread line at midnight in New York 
is a favorite topic of the writer on sociological 
subjects, but such strings of workless and 
starved beings were to be seen everywhere. I 
saw a new kind of a line after the big snow- 



•29 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

^torm. I glanced along it and saw that it ex- 
tended fully a block. Every man in that line 
was waiting to get the few dollars, or few cents, 
he was entitled to for his share in cleaning away 
the snow. Such frost-bitten, hungry looking in- 
dividuals it has not been my lot to look upon in 
years. 

THE MISERY SEEiN IN MISSIONS. 

Still another picture of the " abounding com- 
forts " of the big city was to be seen here in 
the Metropolis, and photographs of it have 
been scattered far and wide by an enterprising 
photographer, as if the scene was one to be proud 
of! The municipal lodging houses being filled, 
a Bowery mission opened its doors to 500 un- 
fortunates. There were no beds, but these peo- 
ple were permitted to sit in the mission all night 
until seven a. m., so as to be out of the cold. 
Many of these found the welcome opportunity 
to snatch a few hours of sleep in a sitting pos- 
ture. 



A LITTLE LAND 
AND A LIVING 



3d 



COLD WAVES, WARM HEARTS. 

They should go together at 
the thought of thousands of 
women and children in our 
city, shivering, hungry, sick, 
through no fault of their own. 

They are sent to us by 
teachers, doctors, churches, city 
officials, neighbors. 

An instance: " I am an iron- 
worker laid off two months ago. 
My wife is sick; there has not 
been a crumb in our house for 
two days. I can't bear to go 
home." 

We relieve suffering at once 
and then try to get people on 
their feet. 

$20,000 are urgently needed 
for food, coal, rent, clothes, 
bedding, medicine. We have 
over 3,000 families in charge 
to-day. 

N. Y. Association for Improv- 
ing the Condition of the 
Poor. 



LEND A HAND. 

This storm means suffering 
which will last for days. 

You would cheerfully help 
to get a fallen horse upon his 
feet. Will you do as much for 
a man? 

Many in our city have heavy 
burdens and a very insecure 
footing. An accident, tempo- 
rary loss of work, brings quick 
suffering to dependent women 
and children. We know over 
2,500 such families to-day. Will 
you help relieve at least one; 
details if desired? $20,000 ur- 
gently needed. Send $1.00, 
$5.00, $10.00, $50.00, $100.00, 
and let us tell you what it does, 
to R. S. Minturn, Treas., Room 
210, No. 105 East 22d St. 

N. Y. Association for Improv- 
ing the Condition of the 
Poor 



These two advertisements, which have recently 
been appearing in the New York papers, are ap- 
pealing on behalf of people who would not be a 
burden on the public at large — who would not 
lose their own self-respect, if they would remain 
on or return to the land. 



31 



THE LETTER THAT 
PROMPTED THIS BOOK 



"THREE ACRES" WOULD MEAN "LIBERTY." 

Just why all these people should not live on 
your " three-acre " farm, even in a large dry 
goods box rather than increase the value of real 
estate in Manhattan or Philadelphia or the great 
city on Lake Michigan, or than swell the ranks 
of the objects of charity, I cannot see. Why 
should not these people live upon a farm near 
the city, to come daily to their business, what- 
ever it be, and occasionally for amusement, and 
to spend their spare time in the profitable and 
healthy occupation — farming? At this time 
when the news of the day gives us startling in- 
stances of top-heaviness in population in reports 
of the destitution almost everywhere, the benefits 
of the " back to the farm " movement are appar- 
ent on its face. If these people for whom the 
land is crying could be induced to locate in the 
rural districts, the cause and results of much of 
this suffering would be done away with. Not 
only would the country districts be benefited by 
such a change, but the cities as well. Much of 
the distress which now prevails in the cities is a 



A LITTLE LAND 32 

AND A LIVING 

detriment to all in these days when country and 
city are so knit together in a subtle bond of ac- 
tion and interaction. 

CITY AMUSEMENTS AND OTHER "ELEVATING" 
THINGS. 

Talk to the young men or women here in 
New York (of course not ALL of them), es- 
pecially those born and brought up in town, and 
before anything else tliey will tell of the great 
fun they are having. They work hard, and have 
long hours. Yet these young people, inclined 
toward fun, spend every cent they can spare on 
clothes and amusements. 

STATISTICS THAT GIVE FALSE IMPRESSIONS. 

I will cite here a few instances which show 
what the city offers the poor. I call "poor" 
every one who cannot afford to be sick for a 
few weeks, or who has not over four weeks' 
wages in the savings bank. The savings bank 
reports show how many hundreds of thousands 
of people have deposited in the hundred odd sav- 
ings institutions on Manhattan Island alone. If 
you walk into any worker's home, even on Third 



33 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

Avenue, you will at once know the real truth of 
those savings statistics. 

While the habit of thrift is being cultivated 
to a larger extent than heretofore, these statis- 
tics leave false impressions; and it is only when 
you get in touch with the people that go to 
make up our large cities that you become in- 
formed as to the impossibility of saving among 
workers. There are few bank accounts to be 
found among the toilers, the clerks, the stenog- 
raphers, the bookkeepers, the tradesmen, and 
even some of the professionals of our great 
cities, who earn barely enough to give them a liv- 
ing, much less a decent home, or to give them 
opportunities for saving. The younger ones 
know not the value of money; the call of the 
great white ways is too strong to resist. They 
will stint themselves, week in and week out, in 
order to scrape together enough of their meagre 
earnings to go to the theatre, dances and din- 
ners. I discussed this subject recently with a 
young man, nearly twenty years of age, and 
he told me in all confidence that one day's out- 
ing with his " lady friend " a few days previous 



A LITTLE LAND 34 

AND A LIVING 

cost him all told a little over ten dollars — and 
his salary is just twelve dollars per week! If 
this was a thing to be indulged in once or twice 
a year I should be able to see how he does it, but 
to repeat tlie same performance about once a 
month and sometimes more, and all on that small 
salary, is past comprehension or belief. 

THE IMPROVIDENCY OF THE POOR. 

When a slack season comes and these young 
people are thrown out of work they have noth- 
ing to fall back on. The task of tiding them 
over for a few weeks, or until they secure an- 
other position, rests upon their family or friends. 
If not that, then the men go to swell the tide of 
beggars, paupers and criminals, and the women 
turn to other forms of social viperism, such as 
prostitution, where they can " get " more money 
and better clothes than is afforded through 
legitimate and healthy occupations. How many 
a young woman, especially among the clothes 
workers who earn mean pittances by piece work, 
has to resort to this means of a livelihood in 
order to make ends meet, not only for herself. 



35 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

but for an aged mother, possibly, whom circum- 
stances have thrown upon her care! Yet what 
a common story it is to us hving in the big cities. 

DIRE NECESSITY. 

Passing through Fifteenth Street in New 
York recently, I noticed a woman and a young 
girl with small pieces of iron raking the refuse 
out of ash-cans and putting it into a bag. 

It is a revolting scene you have often seen, 
but you probably turned away, praying for 
power enough to place these people in a posi- 
tion where such acts would not become a neces- 
sity. The woman was poorly dressed, but from 
her energy and activity she had nothing of the 
beggar about her. The child, not more than ten 
years of age, had inflamed eyes, due most likely 
to the unhealthy occupation. The husband prob- 
ably was out of work at the time, or was strug- 
gling along on five or six dollars a week. From 
this at least two dollars a week must be paid 
for rent, so, in order to help along, the wife must 
do some such work as this in addition to her home 
duties. 



A LITTLE LAND gg 

AND A LIVING 



"THE GREAT WHITE WAY" AS SEEN BY RICH 
AND POOR. 

In one of my rambles up Broadway I passed 
the Metropolitan Opera House just at the time 
the carriages were discharging ladies exquisitely 
gowned and resplendent with diamonds and jew- 
els, and gentlemen in evening dress. They, in 
turn, were being ushered into the lobby, attended 
by ushers and policemen, while, at the same time, 
groups of men, women and children, attracted 
more by a curiosity born of envy than mere idle- 
ness, were ordered to move on. Some passed on, 
and, as though they, in their poverty, must have 
the same kind of entertainment, entered one of 
the slot-machine parlors which furnished amuse- 
ment for as many pennies as their patrons can 
or cannot afford to spend, and whose pictures, 
for the most part, are not fit for young people 
to look at. These people appeared to be fam- 
ilies of workingmen who were, in their way, see- 
ing the great white way, and these slot-machine 
parlors were their avenues of entrance. 

THE DANCE HALLS AND THE STREET. 

Then again think of the hundreds and hun- 



37 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

dreds of cheap dance halls — an evil which the 
papers are loudly decrying — where the children 
of these poor workers go of an evening to seek 
amusement, but in reality to be thrown into dens 
of vice and iniquity and started on the down- 
ward path. 

While going to a lecture one Sunday by Prof. 
Felix Adler, of the Ethical Culture Society, I 
saw a man on the corner evidently suffering 
greatly from the cold. The saloons were closed 
and he probably would not have been a welcome 
guest at the meeting of the society, broad-minded 
though its aims are, even if he had been in a mood 
to listen to an abstruse lecture. 

NO REAL SUFFERING AND DESTITUTION ON 
FARMS. 

A short time ago I was on a visit to the South 
and I took particular care to note the conditions 
surrounding the living quarters everywhere. 
Perhaps the farmers of the South are not very 
prosperous; as a rule they do not appear to be 
as hard-working as those of northern latitudes; 
yet I saw no suffering such as even the most 
casual observer sees in any city. There are no 



A LITTLE LAND 38 

AND A LIVING 

half -blind children, no such degrading occupa- 
tions as picking over slop -barrels ! 

It is clear that the woman with the child pick- 
ing the refuse and being jostled by bumptious 
policemen, and the men looking for work at shov- 
eling snow, would be much better off on a farm, 
and that it would be much better for them to be 
sent to the farm than kept in the large city to 
help along the unearned uncrement in the most 
unsanitary districts; that the families of work- 
men, who had only money enough to go into the 
slot-machine parlors and " nickel " theatres, but 
the men of which are of good ability to work, 
should, of their own volition, rather select the 
farm, and thus be enabled to come to the city 
once or twice a year and take in the better forms 
of amusements. And the fellow who, whatever 
his proclivities may have been, could not enjoy 
ethical expositions because he was not dressed 
well enough to enter the rooms of the society, 
would certainly be better off if he were on the 
farm, as would the entire community. The 
young and able-bodied men of our cities who 
idle away their time in gambling, drinking and 



go THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

riotous living, all at some one else's expense, in 
most cases, should be induced to take up the 
healthful, vigorous life of the farm — there to 
see accomplished the results of his labors, not 
only in a monetary sense, but in his improved 
physical well-being as well. Many of the work- 
ers in the crowded, filthy factories and sweat- 
shops would get double the price of their labor 
if put in agriculture, at the same time improving 
their health, instead of marring it by working 
and sleeping among the remnants of their work, 
five, ten and sometimes fifteen or more human 
beings in one stuffy room. 

THE EDUCATED AND INEXPERIENCED ADAPTED 
FOR AGRICULTURE. 

Many park benches in the cities are filled in 
these years of much education with college and 
public school graduates, who, in the words of 
Mark Twain, " know everything but how to ap- 
ply it." Much of their knowledge — which they 
do not find use for even in menial labor, often 
the only kind they can obtain — if, indeed, they 
are so fortunate as to obtain that — could find its 



A LITTLE LAND 40 

AND A LIVING 

application in modern agriculture. Their learn- 
ing, instead of being a curse which has robbed 
them of the best years of their lives, would on 
a farm not only help them in their work, but be 
an endless gratification and pleasure to them, 
both in their work and in their recreation. 

SCOPE FOR "KNOWLEDGE LEARNED OF SCHOOLS." 

In spite of the fact that agriculture is unique 
among occupations, in that it can be engaged in 
without one's first attaining any particular ex- 
perience, there is ample room for the knowledge 
learned of colleges — and, moreover, agricultural 
colleges cannot fail to benefit both the " pres- 
ent "and the " prospective " farmer. Many suc- 
cessful farmers of the present day, however, be- 
gan farming with very little knowledge. They 
had, of course, to meet the occasional " joshing " 
of the country-bred, but they bore this in good 
part, and picked up knowledge and skill with 
the readiness and pluck of the tenderfoot of the 
Western plains. They have not found that an 
academic course of study or book-learning in ad- 
vance was necessary for a start as a successful 



41 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

farmer, such as is required of the beginner in 
law, medicine, etc., but still they found that they 
were engaged in a profession where knowledge 
is power, just as in everything else. 

TOIL AND PAYMENT OF FARM LIFE. 

The average city dweller is afraid, perhaps, 
of the drudgery and long hours which undoubt- 
edly prevail on the farm. But the drudgery on 
the farm is not like the drudgery of the city, 
which has a twin — suffering. It is a mistake to 
think that the farmer works longer hours at 
harder work than the man in the city. There 
are thousands of people in our large cities who 
would be infinitely better off, morally, physically 
and financially, making a living in the country by 
no harder work and without the misery involved 
in cheap living in the cities, where good, health- 
ful foods are well-nigh beyond the meagre al- 
lowance of the workingman's scanty purse. 

THE world's ideal FARMING COUNTRY, 

The United States is the world's ideal farm- 
ing country. Its varieties of climate and soils 
make it a natural producer of almost everything 



A LITTLE LAND 42 

AND A LIVING 

that can be furnished by the agricultural and 
stock-raising interests. There is not the slight- 
est doubt that farm land will ultimately become 
the most valuable asset of our country. Benja- 
min Franklin said a century ago: " This coun- 
try is fond of manufactories beyond their real 
value; for the true source of wealth is hus- 
bandry." Franklin was possibly wrong in his 
deprecation of factories in his day, for manu- 
facturing has proved to be a prime factor ii^ the 
present greatness of the United States. But 
he really spoke with the tongue of a prophet, 
for this is the time when the words of America's 
greatest philosopher on agriculture are pregnant 
with meaning and force. And this is likewise 
the time when this great manufacturing country 
should awaken to the terse and intensely direct 
sentence of Gibbon: "Agriculture is the foun- 
dation of manufactures." 

agriculture's GOLDEN AGE. 

Those very manufactories have made possible 
the Golden Age of farming, which has now be- 
gun. No more remarkable inventions have been 



43 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

made during the last fifty years than those agri- 
cultural appliances which have taken the place 
of the sickle, the flail and the wind. What a 
difference is there in reaping, cradling, raking, 
binding and mowing, even in planting, from the 
days of old! The antiquated methods to suc- 
ceed with which a man had to get up at four 
o'clock in the morning and work until long after 
" early candlelight," are responsible for much of 
the ignorance of city people in regard to the 
farm life of this day. What drudgery used to 
be entailed on the women of the farm, which is 
now done away with by all kinds of modern im- 
provements in their work! 

The modern farm-house, with its labor-saving 
appliances, its piano, its books and magazines, 
its compartively short hours of toil and its 
manifold interests, is an unknown quantity to 
the city woman, who thinks she is comfortable 
in a small flat, where she is under the dominion 
of the cook and the janitor. Many city people 
under present conditions, however, think them- 
selves lucky to be under that rule. 

The last twenty-five years have been the great- 



A LITTLE LAND 44 

AND A LIVING 

est transformation-period the world has ever 
known — and have brought as great changes in 
country as in city Hfe. Even on farms remote 
from towns and cities, telephonic and telegraphic 
communication, and the later boon, rural free 
delivery — have come to keep their residents in 
close and constant communication with the out- 
side world. These have annihilated distance for 
the farmer of to-day. 

INDEPENDENCE IN AGRICULTURE. 

Some of those who have guided the destiny 
of young men have realized that there is danger 
in a land that suffers from over-education and 
over-crowding of the professions. The careers 
of our young men plainly show that society is in 
need of both brains and brawn, and that while 
we have need of the professional class we must 
not neglect those callings that give us our bread. 
Ex-Governor Hoard, of Wisconsin, exclaimed 
in a public speech : " I cannot bear to go to my 
grave until I see imparted to my nation the 
spirit that shall make agriculture not only the 
support of men's bodies, but an inspiration to 
their intellects." 



45 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

It has been ably shown in the recent reports of 
the Department of Agriculture that it is an in- 
spiration to men's pocketbooks and bank ac- 
counts as well as to their bodies. Many who read 
these reports are surprised at the results of the 
years of unequalled prosperity. The immense 
annual increments, which are comparable only 
with astronomical figures in their demands upon 
the imagination, have a real significance when 
capitalized and expressed in terms of value based 
upon earning power. In one report the Depart- 
ment stated that in five years farms had gained 
in value by a third, or nearly $7,000,000,000, and 
that within those five years nearly 1,800 national 
banks had been organized, mostly in the South- 
ern and North Central rural regions. These 
banks depend upon farmers for their business, 
and are not organized, as would have been the 
case a few years ago, with Eastern capital. " It 
has been an era of small banks in isolated com- 
munities," said the State Bank Commissioner of 
Kansas, at the time, " and so many have been 
started that to-day every hamlet in the State 
where any considerable business is done has a 



A LITTLE LAND 46 

AND A LIVING 

bank." This shows that the farmers are sharing 
in the national prosperity which they have done 
so much to bring about and are banking their 
surplus and looking for investments. How few 
of the city tenement dwellers can do that ! I sin- 
cerely wish that these facts which the Agri- 
cultural Department collects could be placed in 
a striking way before every man, woman and 
child in the large cities of the United States, who 
might be induced to seek their fortune in a field 
than which nothing is surer of bringing full re- 
turns for honest work. 

LAND ENOUGH FOR A LIVING. 

Your book " Three Acres and Liberty," shows 
that with little work three acres will yield enough 
for any family to make a living on. If a man 
will devote all his time to it he might make a 
living for half a dozen families, using only so 
much as his family needs, and saving what would 
be the living expenses for five families. 

ONE POINT OF HONEST DIFFERENCE. 

There is one thing, however, in which I dis- 
agree with you. You believe that the city is 



47 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

more favorable to general education. It is my 
opinion that education comes more from read- 
ing, reflecting and the observation of nature than 
from mingling with crowds. The farmer has 
more opportunity to read and reflect, and less 
opportunity to talk, and consequently learns 
more than the average city dweller, whose mind 
is confused by conflicting ideas and schemes and 
whose time is spent in the hunt for amusement. 
The children could learn more where they could 
read, but where they would see less of the " high " 
life and degrading low morality of big city life, 
and be the better for it in after years. 

WHO SHOULD GO BACK TO THE FARMS? 

One of the most potent reasons that makes 
this a particularly good time to promote a vigor- 
ous increase of rural settlement, is the present 
high cost of living in the city and the destitution 
among the poor, ill-clad and ill-fed city workers. 

But who shall go? There are thousands even 
of the most careful and industrious men and 
women in the cities now, who are making a bare 
living and nothing more; and who have always 



A LITTLE LAND 48 

AND A LIVING 

the fear of loss of steady work, such as is brought 
about under modern conditions by strikes, lock- 
outs, and by improved machinery. The division 
and subdivision of labor and the constant change 
in cities in this age of specialization puts many 
out of employment — hence out of bread — when 
factories shut down. This surplus labor should 
go to the farm. 

Those lads and young men who have left the 
farm for the city, and are not meeting with the 
success which they expected, should, in most 
cases, be encouraged to go back to the farm. 
Many young people continue in cities, suffer- 
ing, in many cases, want and discomfort, simply 
because they are ashamed to return to the coun- 
try after having, perhaps, boasted of their com- 
ing success in city life. They should be shown 
that it is no disgrace^ in most cases, to have 
failed in the city. Or, if their lack of success 
has been due to the temptations of city life, 
they should be likewise induced to return to the 
farm, where those who have once yielded to 
temptation have better chances of growing up 
to be reputable and honorable citizens. The 



49 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

very city experience which young people who 
revert to farming life have gained will aid them 
in becoming progressive beyond former ambi- 
tions. 

WHO WOULD BENEFIT BY SUCH A MOVEMENT? 

In settling the question as to who would 
benefit most by the back to the land movement, 
we would also determine who should take the 
initiative in making the theory a practical suc- 
cess. 

First of all, and in a large degree, the 
public would benefit, even though much of it 
remains in the cities; but, as Henry George 
said, "these bad conditions are due to the leth- 
argy of the public." Consequently, it should 
be the business of philanthropists and sociolo- 
gists to arouse interest among the public. 

The next who would benefit (and possibly 
they should be placed first, because theirs would 
be chiefly a monetary benefit), are the railroads. 
For instance, if one hundred people working 
during the day in New York would live upon 
farms, the railroads would carry them to and 



A LITTLE LAND 50 

AND A LIVING 

from the city, and would haul their products 
also. In this way the railroads would make 
money out of the enterprise, once a colony was 
started. 

SEMI-AGRICULTURAL COLONIES. 

Heretofore railroad communication followed 
town building, and later town building followed 
the opening of the railways nearby. The rail- 
roads should look into this proposition and 
should co-operate, to the extent of supplying 
land along their lines, advancing the necessary 
funds to lay out and build, or going so far as 
to build houses themselves,, renting the homes 
at a nominal figure and realizing on the pas- 
senger and freight traffic, which would increase 
year by year as the colony grows. In the end 
such an investment would bring handsome re- 
turns and would go far toward making the rail- 
roads a real big factor in civilization — not only 
in a commercial sense, as heretofore regarded; 
not only as avenues of communication between 
distant points; not only as builders and openers 
of empires, but also as builders of a new and 
healthful race, clutched from the fangs of the 



51 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

tens and hundreds of thousands of misery-deal- 
ing " reptiles " of the social and commercial life 
of our big cities. 

The colonies, which I would call semi-agri- 
cultural, ought to be started near each city. The 
railroads should run convenient commutation 
trains, and soon the experiment would prove a 
success. Possibly some people would come 
back, but not without having had at least a good 
vacation for a year or two, and when they come 
back they will remember " the good meat they 
ate in Egypt." Movements somewhat similar 
have been tried by Socialists and economists, 
more than once, but they were confined to peo- 
ple imbued with certain teachings of their lead- 
ers. The new " back to the farm " converts 
would owe no allegiance to any particular party 
or sect and would follow the dictates of no per- 
son or persons, but, instead, would heed only 
the call in their hearts for a happy, healthful 
home for their families ; their own patches of land 
and accounts in the savings bank. 

I had some talks and correspondence about 
this proposition with railroad men. Some I 



A LITTLE LAND 52 

AND A LIVING 

" made " read your book, and here are a few ex- 
tracts from the great number of letters received : 
F. H. La Baume, Agricultural and Industrial 
Commissioner of the Norfolk and Western Rail- 
way, writes : 

" . . . In no other book by a Sociologist have I 
found so much sound sense and so many facts marshaled 
for the promotion of the ' back to the land ' movement 
and for intensive farming as in that of Mr. Bolton Hall — 
* Three Acres and Liberty ' — which he has sent me upon 
your suggestion. It certainly ought to convince even the 
most doubting Thomas that for a great many people who 
are now fretting along in large cities, hardly able to make 
both ends meet, the land of promise is not far away. 

" I have seen Mr. Hall's theory — ^the ' Three Acre ' 
proposition — fully vindicated, and I am proud to say that 
I have been instrumental in bringing about its practical 
application. Two years ago myself and friends divided a 
tract of land at Waverly, Va., by no means the ' most fer- 
tile ' in the United States, nor with the * most' favorable 
location, into 10, 15, and 25-acre farms, and upon each 
farm was built a three-room cottage. We originally sold 
one of these farms and cottages for $400, to be paid for 
in instalments, but this price had to be increased later to 
$500 on account of the increased cost of labor and build- 
ing material. 

" On these farms we have settled up to date about forty 
families, the men being of all vocations, but hardly one a 
farmer. Most of the ten acres are timbered, very little 
of it under cultivation, yet every one of these persons has 



53 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

made good not only in the payments to the company, but 
in saving something for themselves and increasing the value 
of their land by development work. In other words, by 
working only a very small part of the land which they have 
purchased for so little money (and only with cash pay- 
ments averaging about $100) they have succeeded in es- 
tablishing themselves in an occupation in which they have 
less worry and even less work than in many of the occupa- 
tions that are offered in large cities. 

" The hunger for land and a self-supporting home is 
inherent in every right-minded man. The natural habitat 
of mankind is in the country, and the city life at best is 
an artificial one. A reaction is setting in, and city people 
are to-day taking an interest in the country and its possi- 
bilities as a home that has not been manifested in years. 

" The .farmer certainly has the best of it. He works 
hard when necessary, but this individual effort brings direct 
returns in proportion, and though he may not deck himself 
in the fine raiment of his salaried brother in the city, his 
clothes are the clothes worn by the 'boss,' and he is re- 
spected accordingly. His hours of work are not longer as 
a rule than the city man's, and he has his Sundays and in 
addition many days when he is not compelled to be out 
attending to his crops. The winter season also affords 
him ample leisure in which to read, visit his neighbors, and 
keep in general touch with the world and its doings. 

" He is not compelled to rely entirely on the butcher, the 
baker, and the groceryman for the necessities of life, but, 
to a very large extent, produces them himself. His garden 
furnishes him with an abundance of vegetables and small 
fruits, he has access to his eggs and tender young broilers 
without considering them a luxury. A few pigs keep him 



A LITTLE LAND 54, 

AND A LIVING 

supplied with tender young pork, which, if necessary, he 
can divide with his neighbors, and in thus taking turn about 
and dividing with each other, they are able to have fresh 
meat throughout the year, to say nothing of the delicious 
hams and sides of bacon that are put in the smokehouse to 
contribute to his comfort throughout the winter. His 
orchard * supplies him with the finest apples of many 
varieties and in the late fall when he has tucked them 
away in barrels in his cellar, along with a barrel or two of 
sweet cider, a few rows of golden pumpkins, Hubbard 
squash, and large piles of potatoes and turnips ; when the 
contributions of the boys and girls — the popcorn from the 
fields and the nuts from the woods, which every farmer's 
child takes pride in supplying — have been deposited along 
with the rest; when the good wife and mother looks upon 
the long shelves swinging from the cellar rafters and sees 
the rows and rows of fruit jars containing the delicious 
preserves, jellies, canned fruits, and vegetables which bear 
such eloquent testimony to the loving thought fulness and 
preserving foresight of herself and her girls; when the 
farmer and his family, I say, sit together in the late fall 
and contemplate these many blessings; when the buzz of 
industry and contentment from the poultry yard, the stable, 
and the pen is adrift in the air and permeates everything; 
then with the thoughts of the Thanksgiving and Christmas 
approaching, the long winter evenings with their comple- 
ment of cider, nuts, popcorn, and apples, the sleigh-rides 
and jolly gatherings at each others' homes — then the farmer 
and his family can indeed count themselves among the 
princes of this earth, secure in the conviction that the real 
blessings of life have been dealt out to them in generous 
measure. 



55 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

" Now, let us look at the city man's side of the question. I 
mean the laboring man and the man who works for a wage. 
In times of prosperity, it is very true that he can command 
the conveniences and many of the luxuries of life; but 
prosperous times make high prices and therefore he is 
compelled to pay liberally for all he receives. If he has 
been fortunate and provident, he probably owns his own 
home, which affords him bodily shelter during times of de- 
pression and adversity, but is in no sense a revenue-produc- 
ing investment. It is not necessary to go into all the details 
of the adversities, the mental and physical suffering en- 
dured by the wage earner in times of strikes, lockouts, and 
periods of business depression. 

" The man who has a little farm can fall back upon it 
when other avenues of support fail him. It is 

" 1. A refuge in times when adversity, business stagna- 
tion, or strikes and lockouts deprive him of work or his 
usual source of support. 

" 2. A healthy outdoor life in God's own sunshine, where 
his sons and daughters can be reared in an atmosphere that 
will insure self-reliant, strong and morally and physically 
perfect men and women, a credit to their parents and to 
the country that gave them birth, 

" 3. The knowledge that he is an American freeholder, 
with all of his privileges and responsibilities, and therefore, 
is as vitally interested in the affairs of this great country 
and as fully entitled to her protection and consideration as 
any other citizen in the land. 

" 4. Last and best of all, the knowledge that he has a 
comfortable and productive home awaiting him in his old 
age, where he can be assured of a competence and a refuge 
after he has reached the pinnacle of life and is traveling 



A LITTLE LAND gg 

AND A LIVING 

down the farther slope over a path which has been strewn 
with many blessings due to the foresight of his younger 
days. Near every city which offers a ready market for the 
product of the farmer or the " amateur " farmer there is 
land which could be satisfactorily and profitably used for 
three acre farm plots, and it will be a blessing to this great 
country if Mr. Hall's theory can be tested soon, for each 
test will more than show its practical side. We have on 
this tract people from all walks of life — clerks, mechanics, 
professional men, those previously engaged in all trades 
and professions. All of them are less than two years on 
our tracts, but you will not find anywhere else such a happy 
lot of people are found there now. 

" I enclose you a few photographs of those farm houses 
which I take the liberty to call ' cottages.' Compare the ex- 
terior with tenement houses surrounded by other tenement 
houses and these little * boxes ' surrounded by gardens and 
pure air. Compare their interiors with the interiors of the 
tenements, without light though possibly with more elabo- 
rate furniture, and you will find that there are thousands 
who could be made happy by going to just such places 
near large cities, even if they have to go to the city to 
work during the day." 

OTHER LETTERS FROM RAILROAD MEN. 

Extract from a letter from an enthusiastic 
officer of a prominent railroad: 

"... I have resigned my position here to take ef- 
fect on or before May 1. I am sick and tired of the city, 



57 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

and want to get in the country to spend my declining years. 
I will see what can be done about getting the necessary land 
for the colony you speak of. I would gladly give it my- 
self, if I had it." 

This is from a man in middle age, hale and 
hearty in body and also in soul and mind, or he 
would not see things as they are. 

Mr. Fred P. Fox, industrial agent of the 
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad 
Co., writes me as follows: 

" One of the most serious problems of the present day 
is the reclamation and rehabilitation of unused farm lands, 
especially east of the Mississippi River. The subject 
divides itself into two questions: 

> " How to get the youth of the country, bred on the 
farm, to stay there? 

" How to induce the city bred youth to take up farming 
as a profession? 

" These are questions that are occupying the attention 
of many great minds. 

" For the country-bred youth, better schools, teaching the 
chemistry of agriculture, the technique of farming, the 
analysis of soils, better environments, etc. 

" To the city-bred youth, literature telling in pleasing 
form the profits to be derived from farming in money as 
well as the larger dividends of health and happiness. 

" In regard to the appeal to the dwellers in cities the 



A LITTLE LAND 58 

AND A LIVING 

best message is contained in Mr. Bolton Hall's * Three 
Acres and Liberty/ which you so kindly sent me with your 
compliments. It is as fascinating as a story, as true as 
history. 

" Down deep in the hearts of all there is a desire to 
spend the last golden days of earth on a little plot of 
ground in the country. It is the picture drawn by Hope 
and colored by Faith, that makes life worth living in the 
congested marts of trade. 

" Some day, somewhere, I'm going to have a little home 
in the country ' — nine out of ten people say this, believing 
it will come true. 

" Railroad managers are deeply interested in this 
problem, for next to a paying industry along its rails, 
should be a paying farm, for without the farm there could 
be no paying factory. The Industrial Departments of the 
railroads have on file and are interested in giving out 
literature, maps, and particulars in regard to vacant farms 
along their lines. 

" The idea of making these desolate gardens of earth 
bloom again like the rose ; to see the abandoned farm houses 
filled again with bright-eyed, laughing children; to see 
deserted fields covered with flocks and herds; to see again 
the golden harvest days, is a consummation devoutly to be 
wished, and there is no more blessed mission than bringing 
it about." 

Still another enthusiastic note is struck by 
Mr. Ira H. Shoemaker, industrial agent of the 
Delaware and Hudson Railroad: 

"... I am in hearty accord with the ideas which 



gp THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

are so attractively presented by your friend, Mr. Bolton 
Hall, in ' Three Acres and Liberty.' I am much interested 
both personally and as a railroad man in the possibilities 
of support to be derived from intelligent, intensive farming 
applied to small land holdings. People who have wearied 
of ' flat-cramped, closet-roomed apartments, or pigeon-holes 
for humanity ' will find the helpful suggestions of this book 
invaluable in aiding them to find real homes which will not 
only contribute to their health and pleasure, but also to 
their material support. 

" In studying the industrial conditions of our own rail- 
road and other roads, I am fully convinced that the value 
of tonnage is greater from one acre of land intensively and 
intelligently farmed than from large tracts cultivated in 
a careless and inefl[icient manner. Therefore aside from 
any altruistic motive, I hope that this book will create a 
widespread interest and that many will be induced to put 
Mr. Hall's ideas to a practical test." 

These letters show plainly that these people 
see the benefit, but they seem to be afraid of 
the slowness of the general public, or they would 
start active work in the three-acre direction. 

A PLEASING TENDENCY. 

It is a pleasure to note that there is now a 
tendency among those who have made money 
in the city, or those who are in good positions, 
to take their families to spend the remainder 



A LITTLE LAND fiO 

AND A LIVING 

of their lives amid the rejuvenating influences 
of the country. These men come to the city 
daily to work, yet when you talk to them about 
their efforts in the agricultural line they fairly 
swell up with pride and without a shade of 
modesty they will tell you of the wonderful 
specimens their little gardens produce. These 
gardens furnish them as much gratification as 
their life-business. Business men, as they feel 
able to withdraw from the severe activities of 
commerce, are looking forward to a happy old 
age in the rural districts. Many fine farms are 
already being developed by these men of wealth. 
The movement is developing among this class 
to a surprising extent and also among the brain 
workers of the commercial centres, and you have 
only to visit the railroad stations or the ferry 
houses, morning and evening, to get an ade- 
quate idea of the number of business men who 
come daily from their country homes to their 
work in the city. As these people buy farms, 
land will become more expensive, and for this 
reason alone, now is the time for the man of 
small means to go into farming. 



61 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

WHAT I HAVE DONE. 

Aside from talking in my own circle about 
the proposition I addressed an open letter to 
the Secretary of Agriculture early in 1906, and 
more than 500 newspapers in the country, in- 
cluding many of the leading ones, noticed it. 
It elicited editorials from such men as Henry 
Watterson, Lafayette Young and others. 
Giants of the press have realized the national 
importance of the subject. The suggestions I 
made to the Secretary to promote this move- 
ment were novel yet feasible. My appeal to 
have the Government, through the Department 
of Agriculture, facilitate matters by providing 
special bureaus and publicity to acquaint city 
dwellers with the golden opportunities awaiting 
the worker in agricultural fields has, as yet, been 
unheeded. Mr. Wilson received the letter, yet 
nothing has come of it, possibly because the 
Honorable Secretary realizes ihe inertia of the 
public. However, he has given the idea a gen- 
eral endorsement, for in receiving a delegation 
which came to interest him in a plan to open 
lands to the unemployed, he said: " The duty 



A LITTLE LAND 62 

AND A LIVING 

and burden of establishing the enterprises rest 
unmistakably upon the State and municipal 
governments. The great manufacturing cen- 
tres, like New York, Chicago and St. Louis, 
have had the advantage of large populations in 
time of industrial prosperity. They have 
drained the country district of a large propor- 
tion of the wealth-producers, and it is only fair 
that, having had the advantages, they should 
shoulder some of the disadvantages. They must 
not expect to eat their cake and have it, too. 

" The idea is a good one, and the distance be- 
tween a closed-down factory and a newly- 
plowed farm should be made as short as pos- 
sible. Let the great municipalities, and the 
smaller ones also, for that matter, provide land 
within a five-cent fare from town; let the unem- 
ployed have access to it, and we will send them 
experts, without charge, from the Department 
of Agriculture to show them how to do it, and 
we will furnish the seeds also. It would solve 
the problem of unemployment as quickly as 
anything else would, and the worst that could 
happen, in case of a return of prosperity in the 
factories, would be the possession of valuable 



63 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

farms by the municipalities, which they might 
conduct profitably on ordinary business prin- 
ciples.'* 

WRITE A NEW BOOK! 

"To the making of books there is no end," 
but it is books, and particularly such practical 
ones as yours, that educate the public to the 
needs of their conditions. I should suggest 
that you write another book on this subject. It 
must be shorter in order that even he who is 
busy would start to peruse it ; that even " he who 
runs may read." That book ought to sell for 
little money. It ought to notice your " Three 
Acres and Liberty," so that those who read the 
smaller book and find that thev are interested, 
and, like Oliver Twist, want more, should get 
the first book as a second dose — the heavier one. 

The new book should answer the old ques- 
tion: "Who are they that shall go?" And if 
the public will but take notice and heed, they 
will give the answer that Moses did: " We will 
go with our young and with our old; with our 
sons and with our daughters; with our flocks 
and with our herds we will go." 



A LITTLE LAND 64, 

AND A LIVING 

YOU, MR. HALL, 

are a man of strong powers of observation and 
have the abihty to express your thoughts in an 
inspiring manner; you know the sociological 
conditions in this country as well as any man. 
Can you not make glow to a flame the spark 
that is existent in everybody? You hear from 
a great number of people that when they get 
a competency they want to have a spot of land 
that they can call their own and where their 
wives and children can enjoy life. This shows 
that it is human nature everywhere for every one 
to long to be nearer Mother Earth and to claim 
a patch of the land as his own. 

In your book, " Three Acres and Liberty,'* 
you have shown one side — that it pays in money 
to go back to the country and take up agricul- 
ture. Now write a book which will show that 
it pays from other standpoints as well. You 
do not have to go far out of your way; the 
means are near at hand and the evidences for 
the movement are to be found everywhere you 
turn in the cities. Let the people go to the 
land for their own sake, for the good of their 



65 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

children, and for the good of others that remain 
in the city; for the good of the whole country, 
and, last but not least, for the good of the human 
race. If a few go away from a tenement house, 
it will give a chance for only five to sleep in a 
room where ten are now crowded together. Let 
a few of the unemployed take up duties on a 
farm, there to earn wages and live happily, for 
then only fifty men would apply for a position 
where now a hundred apply. 

THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY. 

The tendency of population to flock to the 
already congested cities is a menace to the pros- 
perity of America. While much of the brain 
and nerve power which is so great a force in the 
cities of this country was originally nurtured on 
the farm, the time has come when the farm 
needs to retain much of that ability which it 
has heretofore given so profusely to the city. 
The twentieth century will recognize the farmer 
as the king among the workers who benefit man- 
kind. The dignity and independence of that 
which our first President (himself a farmer) 



A LITTLE LAND 66 

AND A LIVING 

called " the noblest occupation of man," will be 
illustrated in this country as never before. The 
young man and woman will find it profitable as 
well as pleasurable to stick to the farms, or to 
leave the crowded cities for the country, where 
one with small capital may more easily secure 
credit and a competency, and can have better op- 
portunities for the right kind of " life " than that 
which is concomitant with limited means in the 
city. The superiority of country life for rais- 
ing families will be recognized by all, and the 
happiness of being " near to Nature's heart " 
will be truer and better than the pleasure which 
the city affords. 

FOREIGNERS LIVE MORE CHEAPLY. 

In urging this " back to the land " proposition, 
I have purposely omitted any discussion of the 
foreign element and the influx of immigrants. 
It is noticeable that, in spite of the congested 
conditions of the foreign districts of our cities, 
and the almost pauperous conditions in which 
they seem to live, there is not that extreme dis- 
tress and destitution which prevails in the other 
poorer districts of the cities. This is probably 



67 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

due to the fact that foreigners, generally, live 
more simply than our poor. As they live their 
own characteristic life, and are thrifty, they 
make their scant earnings from vending, sweat- 
shop work, or that of their own little shops, or 
in their hard out-door labor, go twice as far as 
those of the other class of poor, with their un- 
warranted perverted tastes for " high life " and 
extravagant wants. 

However, in the congested Jewish and Italian 
quarters, with their millions of new comers each 
year, there lies a great problem, and it is grati- 
fying to note that it is being solved, though 
slowly to be sure, by organizations of their own 
better-situated countrymen. 

HOW TO MEET THE INFLUX OF POPULATION. 

How are we to meet this influx of population 
in a way that will be of the greatest benefit to 
the increasing hordes and also to the United 
States? We do not intend to deport such of 
these immigrants as are mentally, physically and 
morally sound. That is not the spirit of Amer- 
ica. Many of them come to these shores with 
the intention of taking up farm life, but get 



A LITTLE LAND 68 

AND A LIVING 

caught in the maelstrom of city life. Several 
societies are making systematic efforts to send 
as many as possible to farming communities 
where labor is needed, or to buy lands and lay out 
farms where families released from the sweat- 
shops and tenements of the cities can live in 
comparative comfort while becoming independ- 
ent and earning homes. Such experimental col- 
onies have been started in small ways by the 
Baron de Hirsch fund, the Industrial Removal 
Society, the Jewish benevolent societies and 
others. For instance, at Arpin, in the northern 
woods of Wisconsin, a farming settlement has 
been in operation for over three years and the 
plan seems to be working successfully. The 
ground was laid out and each family was pro- 
vided with a team of horses, a cow and necessary 
farming implements. The men were paid a 
weekly wage by the association and were on pro- 
bation for one year. At the end of the year, if 
mutually satisfied, a contract was signed, giving 
the family ten years in which to pay for the land 
and equipment, and the profit realized by the as- 
sociation from the man's work over the wages 



Qg THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

advanced was applied to the first payment. In 
spite of poor crop conditions, the majority of 
the original eighteen families remained through- 
out the first year and the quitters were quickly 
replaced. It is estimated that it took an average 
of $1200 to estabhsh a family. 

CONCERTED ACTION NECESSARY. 

All these efforts^ you will readily see, are as 
only a drop in the bucket. They should have the 
aid of an arm more far-reaching, with unlimited 
resources and facilities, so that all societies and 
individuals might unite their eiForts in one big 
organized movement for the welfare of the poor 
and unemployed of our large cities whatever 
their nationality and religion. By concerted ac- 
tion alone can permanent and influential results 
be accomplished; otherwise while the process 
would go along slowly, conditions in the cities 
would grow worse and worse, without hope of 
our good efforts catching up with them. The 
United States Government should follow the ex- 
ample of Canada, and even go further in in- 
fluencing the poor and unemployed to go to the 
land, by holding out special inducements. 



71 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

far as to compel to go to the farm those who are 
manifestly unable to eke out a living in the city 
and thus are on the way (if they have not been 
so already) to injuring themselves and becoming 
a charge to the conmiunity. Ultimately the com- 
munity, for its own protection, sends its vagrants 
and criminals to the workhouse and the peniten- 
tiary, and it is largely from the ranks of these 
unfit citizens that criminals are made. Why not 
prevention instead of a "cure" that will never 
cure ! 

MANY MEN OF MANY MINDS. 

To-day there are the most conflicting ideas on 
foot to aid the poor and needy of our cities — 
some practical, most of them merely theoretical 
— but too many for the good they may do. 

Ex-President Cleveland and Prof. Felix 
Adler seem to realize, as the Bible says, that 
"the poor shall never cease out of the land." 
It was Prof. Adler who a few days ago declared 
boldly that there was no hope for the poor; 
while Mr. Cleveland, in an interview in a daily 
paper, holds out only a faint hope for the needy 
ones, and wishes to encourage charity through 



A LITTLE LAND 7O 

AND A LIVING 

Briefly, I would suggest that such proofs as 
can be obtained about the condition of agricul- 
ture in this country should be widely dissemi- 
nated; that the Department of Agriculture es- 
tablish, in each of the large cities of the country, 
oflices which would give full information to in- 
quirers who wish to know of the best places in 
any part of the rural districts of the United 
States in which to take up their residences with 
a view to engaging in agricultural pursuits. 
These offices should, I believe, co-operate with 
associations and with individuals to draw away 
from the city such elements of the population as 
are not likely to succeed there. This could be 
done through co-operaton with charitable asso- 
ciations, immigration officials, lecturers, the 
press, etc. 

If results from this educational campaign do 
not materialize within a reasonable time, then 
there should be more widespread and drastic 
measures, even going so far as supplying the 
land, and even the home, from the government's 
own tracts or from the various States' aban- 
doned homesteads. Yea, I would even go so 



A LITTLE LAND 73 

AND A LIVING 

the medium of a sort of clearing house or charity 
trust. On the other hand, there are a great num- 
ber of people who would like to relieve the situa- 
tion — I happen to be one of them — by giving 
the poor what is due them, or, in other words, 
by not stealing from them what is their inherent 
right and so keeping them poor. Yet in the 
light of to-day such philosophy gives little hope 
• — a theory that will not be practically applied 
before the people will realize that nothing is 
holy because it is hoary, as well expressed by the 
words of Schiller's " Wallenstein " : 

" Woe unto him who dares to shake the ancient, 
Dignified run of things, the precious heirloom of his 

sires ! 
Time does exert a mighty soothing power 
On what hoary is with age that is for him divine. 
Be in possession and thou dwellest in law and right, 
And sacredly the crowd will recognize what thou 

possess." 

THE REAL HOPE, 

The idea which you so strongly and ably ex- 
pound, Mr. Hall, is the only real hope — the one 
ray of sunshine that is destined to lighten the 
burden and cheer the lives of the needy of our 



73 THE LETTER THAT 

PROMPTED THIS BOOK 

large cities. The movement to get the poor to 
the farm will help a great number, if not all, and 
the results will be permanent. However much 
charity would help, it keeps only for a short time, 
and it has its drawbacks. As the honorable ex- 
President says: "Charity is responsible for the 
apparent contented dependence of the poor." 
This dependence, he says further, " is the thief 
of self-respect. The poor are not permitted to 
help themselves. [It is the privilege of the few 
to help themselves with that which belongs to the 
many.] Once they come within the ken of the 
charity workers they are robbed of their initiative 
and are made dependent." 

Mr. Cleveland's remarks bring back to me 
very strongly my contention that of all the 
plans to aid the poor yours is the ideal one. It 
would do away with all the drawbacks of the 
charitable aid and promote independence instead 
of dependence — not unlike what Macaulay pic- 
tured : 

" Then none was for a party; 
Then all were for the State; 
Then the great men helped the poor. 
And the poor man loved the great; 



A LITTLE LAND 74 

AND A LIVING 

Then lands were fairly portioned . . . 
The Romans were like brothers. 
In the brave days of old." 

The time has arrived when the increase of edu- 
cation will send people back to the country, and 
will populate the rural districts with those who 
will apply their education to a profession which 
is becoming more and more profitable because of 
the dependence of the cities upon agricultural 
districts. 

By writing " Three Acres and Liberty " you 
have done a signal service to your country and to 
your fellow men. Our editors appreciated it 
greatly, as was shown in the notices the book re- 
ceived, which must bring home to you your con- 
viction that all these efforts are for a good cause. 
Now complete the work which you have so ably 
begun, and we will see a mighty concerted effort 
to make the movement to the land a practical 
success. You have pointed out the way, now go 
on, write another book, that will discover the 

leader. 

Yours sincerely, 

WM. BORSODI. 

New Yokk, March 18, 1908. 



A 

LITTLE LAND 

AND 

A LIVING 



CHAPTER I 

LIFE, NOT MERELY MAKING A LIVING 

Opportunities Past and Present — Chances Lost — New 
Chance — Intelligence — Slums a Symptom — The Origin 
of Wealth — Capital — An Acre Enough — Possibilities — • 
Thoroughness — Available Land — New Methods — Inten- 
sive Farming — Trucking — Dairying — How They Do in 
Japan — Denmark — Jersey — We Can Do Better. 

WHEN a goose goes under an arch she 
ducks her head; that is not because there 
is not space for her, but because she thinks there 
is not, and that is because she is a goose. Perhaps 
she does not see very clearly what is above her. 

But we can hold up our heads if we will; it 
is only necessary to look and think. Many of 
us believe we had no chance in life. Others were 
in at the oil excitement or the natural gas boom 
or got in with the trolley development or a mine 
discovery, or found some good opening; but we 
have never seen any opportunity. 

Well, we have our chance now. A new boom 
is on, the farm land boom ; a new development is 
beginning, intensive agriculture; a new discov- 



A LITTLE LAND 73 

AND A LIVING 

ery, the riches of the soil; a new opening, the 
intelligent use of " the httle lands." It does not 
demand any more brains than any of the other 
opportunities and it is open to a far larger num- 
ber. " The profit of the earth is for all." 

There is more money to be made out of the 
soil, if you go at it intelligently, than there is in 
any endeavor that is open to everyone. The 
city man who has brains enough to conduct a 
shop, or who knows how to make a profit out of 
his employees, or who is a good enough fianancier 
to meet the monthly bills, knows enough to 
make money out of the soil. The same attention 
to details, the same care of an orchard or of a 
vegetable farm or of a fruit farm or a flower 
garden, will bring far greater profits. Anyone 
who has a little store or who makes things in a 
small way, is oppressed with the ever present 
danger of being crushed by a trust or forced to 
the wall by richer and more powerful competi- 
tors. What chance has a woman in the city now, 
other than a mere living? And what chance has 
the average clerk? Both grow old trying to 
keep abreast of their expenses. Many of these 



irg LIFE, NOT MERELY 

MAKING A LIVING 

people have a natural taste for the land. They 
love to prune, they love to plant, they love to 
help nature perform her marvels. They potter 
away in their little garden patches at their homes 
in the suburbs, and find more real enjoyment in 
their gardens than in anything else. These are 
the ones who might make grand successes of 
their lives if they worked the soil. And it is a 
life worth hving, with real social advantages. 

Civilization does not breed over-crowded cities, 
nor do we need to stay in them. The slums and 
the billionaires are not diseases, but the symp- 
toms of a disease, the divorce of the people from 
the land. 

All things that go to make well-being, things 
that we call wealth, come from the land by 
work; so that all political economists agree that 
wealth is anything that people want which is got- 
ten out of the earth by labor. Cotton, wool, 
linen, leather, felt, all that we wear; wheat, fish, 
beef, vegetables, everything that we use, comes 
directly or indirectly out of parts of the earth. 

Even the money that we buy or sell these 
things for, the tools that we use to make them. 



A LITTLE LAND 80 

AND A LIVING 

the machines with which we manufacture them, 
are themselves drawn from the land, so that 
economists say again that capital is only that part 
of wealth, of the product of land and labor, 
which is used to make or to get more wealth. 

To get the simplest kinds of these things in the 
simplest way, and to let the children learn to get 
them in the best ways, a few acres is enough, with 
modern methods and active minds. 

An acre is not a big plot; the base ball dia- 
mond has about a fifth of an acre. About two 
blocks of the space on Fifth Avenue, between 
the houses, is an acre. 

On such a plot any dunce can raise the average 
crop of onions, say three hundred bushels, and 
make at least big wages. If we use brains, and 
transplant from hot beds, we can raise that yield 
to five hundred and fifty bushels of choice early 
onions. That is much better and more profit- 
able than " to farm " and raise four hundred and 
fifty bushels of rye on 30 acres, and it gives much 
more satisfaction. The farmer's work, like the 
woman's work, is never done, and what gets done 
is never done thoroughly. Toil as he will, there 



81 LIFE, NOT MERELY 

MAKING A LIVING 

is still crying need for more work at the house or 
somewhere on the fields until he gets so worn and 
discouraged that he has not time or the energy 
even to make a shelter for his machine or to take 
his tools in out of the rain. 

But just such thoroughness, just that kind of 
care is necessary to success in any business; for 
the husbandman it is practicable only on the lit- 
tle plot, or what is practically a lot of little plots. 

The successful grocer and the successful cot- 
ton spinner start their business near their cus- 
tomers, or near their labor; we must start our 
garden or our little onion farm in the same way. 
The price of land will quickly teach us that we 
can get but little of such land, and that therefore 
we must use it to the very best advantage. 

For that is what the best department stores 
and the best bankers and wholesalers do; they 
get the best possible situated bit of land regard- 
less of the price, and put it to the best possible 
use. But the farmer is often working on a 
place that is literally worth less than nothing, for 
the whole outfit will generally sell for less than 
the fences, drains, buildings, and the "good 



A LITTLE LAND 82 

AND A LIVING 

bearing condition to which the land has been 
brought " could be reproduced for. 

So it will pay us better to hire or buy an acre 
or two, worth a thousand dollars, near the mar- 
ket, than a farm for fifty dollars an acre far 
from the market. It saves capital, increases re- 
turns, lessens risks, and facilitates education to 
be near the city on a little bit of earth, for it can 
be rented without a fortune, worked without 
buildings, and its product can be sold without 
delay. In primitive times when we had virgin soil 
which cost little or nothing, a more evenly dis- 
tributed population and little foreign competi- 
tion, the farmer could get "independent rich" 
raising varied crops on a large area. To-day, 
with the high price of farm lands and the con- 
trol of the markets by the railroads, which will 
often haul freight to New York from Chicago 
as cheaply as from Albany, it is well nigh im- 
possible to get more than a living that way 

Intensive farming, intensive trucking, inten- 
sive dairying, and specializing are the up-to-date 
methods that promise sure and good returns. 

Three cows to the acre, not three acres to the 



83 LIFE, NOT MERELY 

MAKING A LIVING 

COW, $700 produce to the acre, not seven acres 
to the hundred dollars produce ; four truck crops 
to the acre, not four acres to the truck crop — 
these are the methods that pay. 

This is no "pipe dream" nor experiment. 
Japan shows us communities living off little 
patches of land of two and a half acres to the 
family. Denmark is a country of prosperous 
little farms. The Island of Jersey in the Eng- 
hsh Channel is about eight miles average length, 
and less than six miles wide, about the size of 
Staten Island, in New York Harbor ; high rocky 
cliffs bound its coast on the north and west. Its 
agriculture sustains its 60,000 inhabitants, more 
than three to the acre of arable land, which is in 
the hands of about 2500 owners, who get a yearly 
rental of $50 to $100 per acre. The soil is not 
very fertile, but its productiveness is enhanced by 
mildness of climate. The holdings vary from 
three to thirty acres, and herds of more than a 
dozen cows are very rare; land and grass are so 
valuable that cattle are never permitted to roam 
at large, but are all tethered and are moved sev- 
eral times a day. They are always led by women 



A LITTLE LAND 84 

AND A LIVING 

instead of being driven. The cows remain out of 
doors the greater part of the year. Very httle 
grain is fed, but in addition to grass and hay, 
the cattle are hberally supphed with roots, chiefly 
parsnips. With our higher intelligence, lower 
rents, and better machines we can do much better 
in this country. 

" The Man with the Hoe " is a back number ; 
it has been proved by measurement and by clock 
over and over again that a man with an ordinary 
hand cultivator costing less than ten dollars, and 
lasting for years, can do as much work as ten 
men with hoes. 

You remember the story of Hercules and the 
wrestler Antaeus : Exhausted by fierce competi- 
tion, Antaeus gained new strength every time 
his feet touched the ground; he was overcome 
only when he was lifted bodily from the soil. Get 
your feet upon the soil literally and figuratively, 
and draw from it not only wealth but health and 
the joy of the earth — not only a living, but Life. 

Earth is your Mother; honor her that your 
days may be long in the land that the Lord thy 
God giveth, for all the children of men. 



CHAPTER II 

BUYING A GARDEN 

Ownership — Sources of Information — Agents — ^Where Not 
to Go — Fertility Secondary — Soil Never Barren — What 
to Buy — Run-down Farms — Cheapness Relative — ^Where 
to Buy — How to Buy — Don't Fear Debt — Borrowing 
Money — Insurance — The Monopoly — Unproductive Lots 
— Use and " Improvements " — Make Unused Land Pay 
—To Buy or to Build. 

IT is necessary to get hold of a bit of this 
earth ; even a lease is a limited ownership, but 
it is far better to buy. 

Do not be tempted off to the deserts or the 
tropics; thousands of years have been used in 
adapting your mind and body to contact with 
your fellows and to temperate climes. New con- 
ditions elsewhere are uncertain. Western Kan- 
sas and Nebraska were settled up after 1883 and 
a few wet years gave fine crops; then a few 
dry years and the grasshoppers brought despair, 
arid homes and thriving towns were absolutely 

85 



A LITTLE LAND gfi 

AND A LIVING 

deserted. With modern methods they are now 
coming into use again. 

The State Agricultural Department will tell 
you a lot about climate and soils and general 
prospects and prices, and sometimes even of 
"abandoned farms," which you can sometimes 
get for less than the mortgages on them, and 
the United States Department at Washington 
will furnish you a map giving the soil survey and 
will tell you all about temperature and rainfall 
of most districts. The Industrial Agents of the 
Railroads will give you more points, but the big 
Real Estate Agencies are the ones you must go 
to for personal and particular directions. Find 
out all you can by writing, and especially by talk- 
ing to anyone whose knowledge or even opinion 
is likely to be worth something. When you want 
anything, the way to get it is to tell everyone 
you meet what you want. 

Don't try to skimp by seeking sellers yourself, 
so as to save the agent's commission; even a 
poor agent knows far more about what is to be 
sold and for how much, and what is cheap, than 
you are likely to learn by days of travel and 



37 BUYING A 

GARDEN 

weeks of inquiry, and he can generally buy 
cheaper and get better terms than you can, be- 
cause he knows what arguments to use and will 
use many that, for the sake of your soul, you 
would not use. 

Get a good map as soon as you decide what 
locality you like ; then get from one of the banks 
the name of a real estate agent whom they can 
recommend — at least he won't be a known thief, 
as some are; examine one farm in that section 
and talk with those who have cultivated it, even 
in their crude way; by it you can judge of other 
land near by. 

Don't be deluded by five-acre plots on easy 
terms, even if the soil is fertile, where there is 
no market; the farther you go from a good mar- 
ket the less the acre is worth. For a small piece 
of land, situation and cheap transportation 
facilities are of far more importance than is 
mere fertility; the German idea is, that a good 
soil is any place where one can put fertilizers. 

You should look for a good soil, but situation 
is the thing. Location, nearness to a good place 
to get manure and to sell crops, has more to do 



A LITTLE LAND 88 

AND A LIVING 

with profitable cultivation than the quality of the 
soil or anything else. 

The following extract from the Year Book of 
the Department of Agriculture for 1902 (page 
562) shows what can be done with barren soil: 
" The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment 
Station has grown carnations and other crops in 
sifted bituminous coal ashes with three per cent, 
of peat moss. There is practically no plant food 
there, so for 100 square feet of bench-space six 
pounds and three-quarters of nitrate bone black, 
and muriate of potash were thoroughly incorpo- 
rated with the ashes before setting the plants and 
proved to be better in some ways than rich com- 
post." 

So look out for a good place where you can 
get stable manure cheap. Don't be discouraged 
by the run-down look of a place or the ratty 
looking shacks — those are the places that sell for 
much less than they are worth. A lot of pains 
and a little paint will do wonders to renew a 
tumble-down, weed-grown farm, and you will get 
big pay for them. You are out for a bargain, 
and if a place looks well it sells well. 



80 BUYING A 

GABDEN 

Get land that is in the line of improvements, 
so that the value will grow through the efforts 
of others while you sleep; it is cheaper to pay 
several hundred dollars for an acre that is sure 
to double in value because someone will need 
it, than to get a tract out at " jump-off " for a 
song. 

If possible buy or get a long lease near a 
growing city and with good trolley or railroad 
connections. If you don't, the growth of the 
city will benefit only the land owner, and will 
in time crowd you out. If you buy, the increased 
value due to the growth of the city will be 
added to the profits of your crops and later will 
pay you for moving out of the way. 

Get your land in a district that people are be- 
ginning to go to; there is where you can earn a 
living off the plot while it is advancing in value, 
but you must not buy more than you can carry 
through the hardest times, or through a time of 
sickness. 

Have as much as possible left on mortgage 
for as long a time as possible, say five or even 
ten years, with the privilege to you to pay off 



A LITTLE LAND 90 

ANE> A LIVING 

earlier on any interest day. Of course if you can 
pay cash and have enough capital left, it is well, 
but don't be afraid to go moderately in debt ; to 
borrow money to spend is one thing; to borrow 
it to invest is quite another. All banks and all 
merchants begin by getting in debt and adding 
the use of the capital so acquired to their own 
' — even cash houses always owe their clerks. 

The experience of the Building Loan Asso- 
ciations in the East, and of the pioneers in the 
West, shows that you may borrow money even at 
twenty per cent, and make money. It is not debt 
but recklessness and imp^rovidence that ruins 
men. Invest carefully in something that you 
yourself know as much about as anybody else 
does — not in wild-cat stocks. Says Frederick F. 
Ayer, " Wall Street is a trap." 

Insure your life and your health too, if you 
can, so as to make provision for those dependent 
on your efforts and get on your feet as soon as 
possible. You may get rich having others work 
for you. You never will by working for others. 

But don't get excited over a " snap " and pay 
too much. There are as good chances to-day to 



gi BUYING A 

GARDEN 

get rich off land owning as there ever were ; and 
there will be just as good chances to-morrow. 

So many great fortunes are due to the rise in 
land values that we are apt to try to get rich 
that way without due knowledge of principles 
or of circumstances; and so to lose. Only luck 
can make up for lack of foresight, discretion, and 
experience. Lambs are shorn in the real estate 
market as well as in the stock exchange. 

Remember in your buying that the ownership 
of land is a method, not only of making money 
by industry, but of making money by law. It 
is the fundamental monopoly, and intensive use 
of the land will enable you to hold it and live by 
it while you wait for the natural increase in value. 

If you are one of the many thousands who 
have bought " lots " that have not risen in value 
as was expected, think whether they might not 
be made productive by raising vegetables or ani- 
mals, instead of raising prices. 

It is useless to wait for large advances in lots 
which are partly settled with small homes; few 
can pay over five hundred dollars for a home lot. 
Unless the home lots are wanted for business, 



A LITTLE LAND 92 

AND A LIVING 

apartments, or other expensive improvements, 
they have a very definite limit in value, because 
the small home owner does not greatly enhance 
land values and he will not move. 

Determine what you want to do, lest you fall 
between two stools ; whether to speculate in land, 
making a living off it while it increases in value, 
or to get produce and take the chance of increase 
in value. 

If you merely want a place to work, nearness 
to an asylum, hospital, or institution will often 
help greatly, but such " bad improvements " hurt 
the speculative value as much as a cemetery does 
— ^unless it is so situated that a growing concern 
must have it. But if you wish to speculate — 
that is another story. 

You can often buy a tract that the owner won't 
divide, and sell off part of it at an advance. If 
you have to carry land that you cannot use to its 
full capacity, see that there is some kind of 
shanty on it so that someone else will be working 
to pay you rent. 

Look out for the probabilities of assessments 
for street sewers, sidewalks, and especially for 



03 BUYING A 

GARDEN 

grading. Get an old building if you can, even 
if you have to have it moved a long distance on 
to your land. It is cheaper to buy and alter by 
your own work than to build; a tumble-down 
barn with good lumber in it makes a surprisingly 
good house at a low figure, especially if you can 
do the most of the work yourself. I have tried 
it repeatedly and know, though I did not do the 
work myself. 

If you have any special knowledge of soils, of 
minerals, of coal, or clays, or water power, j'^ou 
may make special profit of it. Thousands have 
got fortunes (as Carnegie got his first start by 
buying natural gas land) through seeing capa- 
cities or uses of earth that others overlooked. 



CHAPTER III 

VACANT LOT GARDENING 

Charity vs. Self-Help — Opportunities — Assistance — Co- 
operation — Little Government Needed — Cost — Health 
and Success — A Variety of Returns — One-half Acre — 
Large Profits — Land, not Capital, Necessary. 

No nation was ever overthrown by its farmers. Chaldea and 
Egypt, Greece and Rome, grew rotten and ripe for destruction not 
in the fields but in the narrow lanes and crowded city streets, and 
in the palaces of their nobility. So let us thank God and take cour- 
age as we see in our day the movement countryward, and the 
" abandoned farm " and lot no longer abandoned. Surely the 
history of creation is repeating itself, and again is the Lord God 
taking man and putting him in a garden to dress it and keep it. 

Dr. Francis E. Clark. 

WHAT unskilled labor with little capital can 
do on quarter acre plots of poor soil, well 
situated, is best shown by the Vacant Lot Gar- 
dening Associations of various cities. 

Placing the half sick, the disabled, worn-out 
people and the unemployed on vacant lots, where 
they can employ themselves raising their own 
food, is now no experiment, but an important 

96 



A LITTLE LAND gQ 

AND A LIVING 

support of many families which would otherwise 
be dependent upon charity. 

Captain Gardner, U. S. A., the first Superin- 
tendent of the Detroit Vacant Lot Gardens, in 
a letter said: "It is the opportunity to help 
themselves that these people want, and it does 
seem so "WTong that in cities people should almost 
die of starvation and yet thousands of acres held 
for speculation lie idle within the city limits. It's 
a sort of a ' dog in the manger ' business. Poor 
people are often as sensitive about being objects 
of charity as you or I would be, and as a rule 
they prefer to work for what they get — 
rather Vacant Lot work — ^than to receive it for 
nothing.'* 

It has met with marked success between the 
waves of speculation, in over twenty cities 
throughout the United States and also in Eng- 
land and France, as a means of opening employ- 
ment to those who are incapable of earning a 
living elsewhere. Its practicability and efficiency 
have been recently demonstrated, particularly in 
Philadelphia, where for years from one to two 
hundred acres have been kept in cultivation. In 



97 VACANT LOT 

GARDENING 

1907 over eight hundred famihes raised on about 
two hundred acres, crops worth $40,000. 

There are plenty in New York City who want 
land, but Vacant Lot Gardening there has a 
serious drawback — lack of land within easy reach 
of congested centres, that can be had free ; how- 
ever, thirty acres in the Bronx was loaned by the 
trustees of the Astor Estate. Only fifteen was 
cultivable, the rest being woods ; the land was so 
rough that sod and stone, making ridges three or 
four feet high, were removed by the gardeners 
before the soil was in condition to plant. 

An announcement in the papers brought in 
a few days more than three hundred applications, 
coming from the five Boroughs and some from 
Jersey City and from Newark. Applicants were 
sent to the manager at the Farm to secure a 
definite plot varying in size from an ordinary city 
lot to one-half acre. Such persons or families as 
needed assistance were supplied with seeds and 
tools by the Association. 

A hotbed was made to supply early plants. 
An expert gardener was employed in the begin- 
ning to instruct the gardeners in preparing the 



A LITTLE LAND gg 

AND A LIVING 

soil, selecting and planting the seeds, cultivation, 
etc.; each gardener was expected to cultivate his 
own plot, and was held responsible for its con- 
dition. 

In our gardens each cultivator received a card 
like this : 

1. Each person receiving a cultivating privilege is re- 
quired to cultivate the land throughout the season. 

2. Each gardener accepting a privilege, agrees not to 
trespass on another's garden, but to co-operate with all in 
preventing trespass. 

S. Failure to comply with these regulations will cause 
forfeiture of the privilege. 

4. The decision of the Superintendent shall in all cases 
be final. 

These simple rules have been found sufficient. 
Although the cultivators were recruited from 
many nationalities — French, German, Swedish, 
Italian, English, Jews, native Americans, Negro 
— there was not a single case of disorder and 
hardly any thieving. 

It is hoped so to train these families in agri- 
culture, that they can transplant themselves to 
the country, and so be permanently benefited, 



99 VACANT LOT 

GARDENING 

as has been done at Philadelphia, where in 1904 
sixteen families who had gardens in 1903, leased 
nine acres at $15 per acre per year and made 
one of their number manager. Their children 
from nine to twelve years old sold the products 
to consumers; organizing their own routes, and 
receiving daily twenty per cent, of their sales in 
payment. They often made four to five dollars 
a week each, never working over five hours daily, 
and at work that seemed to them more like play. 

Such results encouraged the New York Com- 
mittee. In New York the cost to contributors is 
about ten dollars per family. Against this the 
families have products of nearly $10 for every 
dollar expended. 

The opportunity to cultivate was especially 
welcome to wage earners whose large families 
found no room for healthy activity in the nar- 
row streets o£ Manhattan. A single man, too 
old for active work, had one of the best gardens. 
A consumptive, aided by his wife and two small 
children, cultivated an eighth of an acre, pro- 
ducing fifty dollars worth of products. This 
man lived in a tent all summer and built a shack 



A LITTLE LAND 100 

AND A LIVING 

12 X 20 feet for the winter. Although not cured, 
his condition was much improved. Another 
man, a sailor, who was a nervous wreck as the re- 
sult of an operation, performed a prodigious 
amount of labor on a piece of the roughest land 
on the farm. His condition was such that he 
could work but a few hours at a time, thus being 
unfitted for any steady emplojonent. Neverthe- 
less, his garden compared favorably with any 
of the others. A Jewish family, mother and 
eight children, worked assiduously on a half -acre 
plot, the largest granted to any one family. 

Some, who lived in the vicinity, did the plant- 
ing and weeding early in the morning and after 
work hours in the evening. Others residing far 
down in Manhattan, came to their Gardens Sat- 
urday afternoons and Sundays. A few hours 
during the week was sufficient to cultivate one- 
quarter acre throughout the season. The time 
required for one-quarter acre is about 72 hours, 
in a season covering six months or 24 weeks. 
This gives the time required per week as three 
hours. 

The product of one-quarter acre varies with 



101 VACANT LOT 

GARDENING 

the skill of the gardener. Our experience bears 
out the results that have been attained in Phila- 
delphia — to wit — a product of fifty to one hun- 
dred dollars per garden. For the time put in, 
the garden earns, therefore, from 70 cents to 
$1.40 per hour — without any of the advantages 
' of capital and without any employer. 

In addition to the product of the garden, those 
families who lived in tents saved from fifteen to 
twenty dollars per month in rent. For six 
months the entire saving amounted to from $140 
to $220 per family. The expense was the cost of 
the tent — about $20 complete — and such items as 
seeds and tools, which for a quarter-acre garden 
amount to five dollars for the season. 

The indirect benefits to persons with large 
families were very great. In a few weeks after 
going to the Farm the pale, puny children became 
ruddy and robust, playing in the grass and living 
healthy, natural lives. They helped the mother 
in the gardens, and added their mite of strength 
to weeding the growing vegetables, to feed the 
family during the summer and to make a store 
for the winter. 



A LITTLE LAND 102 

AND A LIVING 

Ignorant people, women, cripples, boys, the 
aged and infirm have proven their ability to sup- 
port themselves from lots 100 x 150 feet of poor 
land without hotbeds, greenhouse or any perma- 
nent improvements. 

Unfortunately in every city the willingness to 
work far outstrips the opportunities now open. 
Most of us prefer to keep the land and the peo- 
ple idle. 

The following is a sample of many letters re- 
ceived and shows the importance of this oppor- 
tunity : 

" New York, Sept. 29, '06. 
Dear Sir: I have about one-half acre which my little 
ones and my wife have been working. Here is a list of 
some we have sold: 

Radishes $ 3.40 Peppers 75 

Celery 3.00 Egg Plaat 60 

Parsley 70 Pumpkins 2.40 

Tomatoes 17.25 Turnips 1.50 

Corn 5.10 Beets 2.00 

Beans 2.30 Cabbage 2.15 

Carrots 1.70 Potatoes 12.00 

Cucumbers 3.75 Muskmelon 2.50 

Lettuce 2.10 Kale 75 

Onions 4.15 

Peas 2.24 Total $70.35 



JOS VACANT LOT 

GARDENING 

Besides this our cellar is filled for the winter, and I am 
satisfied^ my six children and my wife are well provided 
for. Yours truly. 



In addition to the amount sold and stored this 
man had supplied his table since June 1 with all 
the vegetables needed by his family besides 
taking in four boarders for several weeks. A 
low estimate of the vegetables used by his family 
and boarders for twenty weeks would be $100, 
and this must be added to the amount sold and 
stored to get his total production. This would 
amount to at least $200 in all. 

Another remarkable showing was made by an 
old man. On a plot 60 x 100 feet he raised fifty 
dollars' worth of products, entirely by his own 
labor. At that rate of production he could have 
produced $360 worth of products to the acre. 

Ninety gardeners started in at the beginning 
of the season and less than five per cent, failed 
to carry their work to completion. 

Gaylord Wilshire, a prominent Socialist, and 
Editor of Wilshire^s Magazine, says: 

"In our grandfathers' days 'necessary ma- 



A LITTLE LAND 104 

AND A LIVING 

chinery,' meant an axe, a hoe, and a log cabin, all 
of which were easy of individual production and 
ownership. To-day, 'necessary machinery' 
means a combined reaper and harvester, made by 
a one-hundred-million-dollar trust, a one-hun- 
dred-million-dollar railway to haul the wheat to 
market, a million-dollar elevator to unload it, and 
a million-dollar mill to grind it into flour, and 
finally a hundred-million-dollar trust to bake it 
into biscuits for all America." (Wilshire's Edi- 
torials, page 210.) 

But the Vacant Lot Gardens show that even 
to-day available land only and not capital is 
necessary to make a living, and that any person 
who can get a bit of land can succeed upon it if 
he will work with his head as well as his hands. 



CHAPTER IV 

REASONABLE PROSPECTS 

Living Costly — Hunger — Value of Food Products — What 
a Man Wants to Know — Fortune in an Acre — Stony 
Wold Record — Old Methods — New Methods — Acre 
Profits — Irrigated — Shearer's Success — O'Brien's — 
Hartman's — Small Gardens — A Woman's Patch — A 40 x 
50 Garden — A City Backyard — Five Cents Per Square 
Foot — Glade Lands — An Illinois Plot — A Michigan Ex- 
periment — Farmers as Robbers — Youthful Gardeners — 
With Brains — Average Yields — Census Reports — What 
Averages Imply — Bailey's Estimate — Philadelphia Gar- 
deners — Uncommon Vegetables — Other Callings Similar 
— Scientific Farming — The Farmer's Returns — ^What 
Could be Made — What He Makes. 

" LET US HAVE THE FACTS."— Joseph H. Choate. 

DUN & Co., the commercial agents, calculate 
that the cost of food has increased over 
one-half in the last ten years. Wages have ad- 
vanced less than twenty per cent. Now they 
seem likely to recede. 

105 



A LITTLE LAND iqQ 

AND A LIVING 

In the winter of 1905, at the height of the 
boom, I saw a double Hne of men standing in 
the bitter wind at eleven o'clock at night waiting 
their turn for the cup of coif ee that a newspaper 
gave — there was not one overcoat among them. 

A look at these "bread lines" will convince 
anyone that even if "the amount of food that 
the world could consume is limited," as Dr. En- 
gel thinks, we are still far from the limit, and 
that a fall in prices from increased production 
would be no unmixed evil. 

These people are hungry because they can find 
no opportunity to work; one of the first steps 
toward their finding it is to show them that they 
need access to the land. 

The food products of the United States in 
1900 were worth $1,837,000,000, but the material 
that was grown for use in textile, leather and 
lumber industries alone was worth fourteen mil- 
lion dollars more than that. So we need not 
hesitate for economic reasons to send the city 
man to the Farm. Nor need the city land owner 
fear that he will suffer by the new farm move- 
ment draining away his tenants out of the city. 



107 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

Increased production and wider prosperity will 
help his land values; for it is self-evident, when 
one thinks of it, that any improvement in the 
condition of the earth must go first and mainly 
to the owners of the earth. 

But the hard pressed city man does not want 
theories nor statistics; he wants to know what 
show there is for him, and where he shall go and 
what he is to do when he gets there. He wants 
to know how he is to earn more than he is earn- 
ing and more surely, by his own eif ort, and what 
land to buy and how to use land that may make 
him rich through the efforts of others if he only 
knows how to hold on to it. 

He does not need much land for either pur- 
pose. An acre in the Bronx Borough of New 
York City, where I saw vegetables growing less 
than ten years ago, will sell to-day for more than 
a hundred thousand dollars. 

" One man in one year, as I have understood," 
said Carlyle in " Sartor Resartus," " if you lend 
him earth, will feed himself and nine others." To- 
day one man, with access to an acre, can feed 
scores, no matter where that acre may be^ 



A LITTLE LAND 108 

AND A LIVING 

Now the Stony Wold Sanitarium for con- 
sumptive girls is at Lake Kushaqua in the 
Adirondacks, where two feet of snow fell on the 
8th of April, 1907. But one man's work sup- 
plied over 150 persons with all the garden truck 
they could use, from May to November, and fed 
a lot to the chickens and cattle, off one and three- 
quarters acres. Besides that, as Dr. Goodall 
writes, they got forty-five bushels of potatoes 
and a large quantity of root crops also, to lay 
away for winter. 

Taking those figures to pieces we find that, 
even in that climate, 1750 feet above the sea, 
where the snow lies into April and frosts always 
come in June, one-tenth of an acre will feed 
five persons and leave a surplus. The rest of an 
acre will give room for fruit or flowers to sell 
and will keep enough chickens and a litter of 
pigs to supply the most of the animal food de- 
sired. 

Prince Kropotkin gives a higher estimate than 
this. In *' The Conquest of Bread " he says : 
"Two and a half acres of market-garden yield 
enough vegetables and fruit to richly supply the 



109 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

table of 350 adults during the year. Thus 24 
persons employed a whole year in cultivating 
2 7-10 acres of land, and only working five hours 
a day, would produce sufficient vegetables and 
fruit for at least 500 individuals." But this can 
be done only by intensive methods. 

A. R. Sennett in a recent publication entitled 
"Garden Cities in Theory and Practice" shows 
that it requires at least two acres of farm land, 
as at present cultivated, to feed each one of the 
people of America with grain and vegetable 
products. 

Again, he estimates that it requires from two 
to three acres of cultivated pasture land to feed 
an ox, cow, or horse for a year, and, allowing 
one ox as the animal food sufficient for three 
persons per year, it requires at least an additional 
acre of pasture land on which to raise our beef 
or animal food; or three acres to feed each per- 
son. These estimates are based on the present 
ordinary wasteful methods of culture and pas- 
turage. 

The difference between such methods of pas- 
turage and what has been accomplished by using 



A LITTLE LAND 
AND A LIVING 



110 



intensively cultivated fields for permanent pas- 
ture, may be seen from the following table of the 
product of an acre in various crops. 



Unirrigated meadows and 
clover pastures cut twice 
per year 

Swedish turnips cultivated.... 

Rye, well cultivated 

Sugar Beets 

Indian Com ensilage 





Equiva- 


Average 


lent to 


crop per 


feed in 


acre In lbs. 


dry hay 




in lbs. 


4,800 


4,800 


38,500 


10,000 


64,000 


18,000 


64,000 


21,000 


120,000 


30,000 

1 



Number 

cattle 

fed yearly 

from every 

10 acres 



2.6-10 
5.2-10 
10.8-10 
2.16-100 
3.30-100 



In the first case two acres of land are required 
for each animal. In the latter, the two acres 
will feed six animals and leave six-tenths of 
enough to feed another. Merely a difference in 
what is raised. 

By calling to our aid the latest scientific cul- 
ture of food products we can show even a 
greater difference than in the feeding of cattle. 

One irrigated acre has for thirty years given 
Samuel Cleeks of Orland, Glenn County, Cali- 
fornia, a larger net income and a better home 
than many of his neighbors get from hundreds 
of acres apiece. Mr. Cleeks saves an average of 



Ill REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

four hundred dollars per year after getting a 
good living from his acre, while many are be- 
coming poor trying to run big farms without 
irrigation. 

In the Eastern and Middle States are chances 
to do just as well on a single acre. Oliver R. 
Shearer of Hyde Park, near Reading, Pennsyl- 
vania, makes $1200 to $1500 a year on 3 1-3 
acres, of which he cultivated 2 1-2 acres. He 
has raised and educated three children and paid 
$3800 for his property out of the profits of his 
intensive farming. 

D. L. Hartman, of New Cumberland, Pa., in 
1905, got $454 from an acre of early tomatoes 
and an equal amount from an acre and half of 
later tomatoes. An acre and a half of strawberries 
brought him $555 and his early cabbages aver- 
aged about $300 per acre. 

He says that no one can fix the limit of value 
one acre can produce. One-sixth of an acre 
planted in radishes and lettuce, followed by egg- 
plant and cauliflower, and the next year to rad- 
ishes alone, followed by eggplant, brought over 
$200 each year; at the rate of over $1200 an acre. 



A LITTLE LAND 112 

AND A LIVING 

A small plot 20 x 65 feet was planted first In pan- 
sies sold in bloom, then in radishes, part of which 
proved a worthless variety, then idle long enough 
to grow another radish crop, then half in late let- 
tuce and the other half in winter cabbage which 
yielded no cash return. Yet $86.78 was received 
from this one thirty-second of an acre, at the rate 
of $2780 per acre. This amount could have been 
raised to $4000 an acre; all without using 
glass. 

A woman on Long Island cultivated a patch 
of garden 25 x 50 feet and raised radishes, let- 
tuce, onions, peas, string beans, carrots, beets, 
sweet corn, potatoes, tomatoes, lima beans, egg- 
plant, peppers, parsnips, squash, and cucumbers, 
enough to feed her family of three and cleared 
$50 on sales in one season. This is at the rate, for 
the things sold, of $1750 per acre, after paying a 
man to spade the plot, for manure to fertilize, 
and $1.00 for seed. Even a city yard, though 
only 25x30 feet, if properly worked, can be 
made to produce enough vegetables for a small 
family. 

A lot 40x50 feet, by careful cultivation, 



113 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

yielded radishes, lettuce, onions, peas, beans, cab- 
bage, beets, sweet corn, potatoes, cucumbers, 
sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, amounting to more 
than $20 in value, which was $433 per acre. Such 
returns are not confined to pieces of naturally 
"good" soil, but may reasonably be expected 
from any soil properly cultivated.* 

In the mountain region of Garrett County, 
Md., there are swampy lands with streams run- 
ning through them, known as glade-lands. A 
gentleman gave plots of these glade-lands to men 
employed in his tanneries, to be used as they 
pleased. 

Truck gardening was the result. In the fall, 
when the crops were gathered, the gentleman 
had the yield of potatoes carefully measured 
tv/ice, to be sure that the result was correct. 

* The Garden Magazine for May, 1907, is the authority for au 
account of a city backyard garden 28 x 28 feet, which produced 
enough vegetables to supply a family of three from the middle 
of May until November. Successive sowings were made v/here- 
ever a little space could be found, with the result that all the 
ground produced two crops, and most of it three during the 
season. The produce included radishes, lettuce, parsley, onions, 
strawberries, currants, peas, beans, salsify, tomatoes (early and 
late), corn, cucumbers, celery and winter squash. The value of 
the yield was $30.80. 



A LITTLE LAND 114 

AND A LIVING 

The yield of potatoes was at the rate of 900 
bushels per acre.* 

Mr. E. A. Sutherland of the Nashville Agri- 
cultural and Normal Institute of Madison, Ten- 
nessee, writes : " I leased an eighth of an acre in 
Battle Creek, Michigan, and put it into ordinary 
garden vegetables. This little plot of land pro- 
duced me green vegetables that would have cost 
me $80 (or $640 an acre) on the market. I kept 
a strict account at the time because I was desirous 
of knowing just what could be done. I took no 
other special pains with my garden beyond giv- 

* Farmer's Bulletin No. 149 of the Department of Agriculture, 
in 1902 says: "In order to secure data regarding the amount of 
labor involved in the care of a garden, and the amount of produce 
it would yield, a ' farmer's garden ' was planted at the horticul- 
ture department of the University of Illinois in 1901 so as to 
furnish a continuous supply of vegetables throughout the season. 
The garden was 380 feet long and 77 feet wide, or about half an 
acre. It was manured with 20 loads of well rotted manure, 
plowed early in the Spring and well worked down and then 
planted in long wide rows, so that most of the cultivation could 
be done with a horse. A succession of the same vegetable through- 
out the season was secured by planting early, medium, and late 
varieties, or by planting the same variety at different times. A 
combination of these two methods was found most satisfactory. 
The cost of all the seed used was $5.45. Putting a low estimate 
on the value of the crop raised, the vegetables could not ordinarily 
have been bought for $83.84. What other half acre on the farm 
would pay as well? 



115 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

ing it ordinary care and cultivating it often. I 
was president of the Battle Creek College at the 
time, and was carrying heavy work, so could put 
only a little time each day in the garden. I did 
not sow another crop on any piece of the ground 
as soon as it was cleaned. I might have increased 
the value of the products considerably by raising 
two or three crops on a portion of it. 

"Afterwards, I got about a third of an acre 
at Berrien Springs, Michigan, and cared for that 
for two years in about the same way. I had some 
fruit there. My own experience has been suffi- 
cient to satisfy me that an acre of land cultivated 
on the intensive plan will produce all the way 
from $300 to $1000. I find that this is a very 
common experience with those who can give the 
proper attention to the soil. 

" I am convinced that there is very little syste- 
matic farming done in the United States. The 
most of the so-called farmers are simply robbers, 
who continually take from the soil without build- 
ing it up. In a short time the soil becomes ex- 
hausted, and does not yield its strength. Then 
they doctor it with ' patent medicine ' fertilizer. 



A LITTLE LAND Hg 

AND A LIVING 

" We have a tract of land near Nashville, upon 
which we are building an agricultural school. 
One of our first objects is to train men to take a 
piece of land and cultivate it in the right way, 
demonstrating what can be done with a few acres. 
We are making it possible for a man in the city 
to secure a home in the country and make a com- 
fortable living." 

To show what the least skilled labor may pro- 
duce, the following samples are given : On a lot 
10 X 10 there was grown in Philadelphia by school 
children ten to twelve years old: — 



Beets, 


6 bunches 


.30 


Cabbages, 


3 heads 


.15 


Lettuce, 


40 heads 


$2.00 


Lima Beans, 


2J pecks 


.75 


Radishes, 


20 bunches 


$1.00 


String Beans, 


li pints 


.10 


Tomatoes, 


2J pecks 

Total 


$1.00 




$5.30 



This is at the rate of over $2000 an acre. 

Mr. Edward Mahoney, Superintendent of the 
Garden School in Yonkers, N. Y., writes: — 
" Our school covers one and three-quarters acres, 
the actual area cultivated by the children being 
1 1-40 acres, the remainder being used for walks, 



117 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

observation gardens, tool house, flower beds, etc. 
The total value of the vegetables raised by the 
children last year was $1350.00. This value was 
computed from the prices the parents of the chil- 
dren paid to hucksters, stores, etc., for the same 
kind of vegetables. We use each year on our 
Garden School $150.00 worth of fertilizers. 

Two students in the Colored Training School 
took a vacant lot and raised enough vegetables to 
supply two families all summer and sold enough 
to pay the taxes on the lot. A boy, fourteen years 
old, raised enough vegetables on an ordinary sub- 
urban lot to supply the needs of a family and 
sold $30 worth of truck besides. 

Similar results are constantly coming to light 
from all over the country, proving that they are 
not confined to any specially favored section, but 
may properly be regarded as "reasonable pros- 
pects" from any gardener. It is a question 
purely of how much care and intelligence are 
given to the garden. 

An old Master was asked, " With what do you 
mix your paints to produce such exquisite col- 
ors?" "I mix them with brains," he aptly re- 



A LITTLE LAND 118 

AND A LIVING 

plied. If we are to cultivate a garden or farm 
with our brains as well as our hands, small hold- 
ings should be selected as near to large cities as 
possible, so that large quantities of stable manure 
can be had cheaply. This not only greatly in- 
creases productiveness but also warms up the 
soil, thereby ensuring early vegetables. 

If you don't thinks you will make more money 
carrying a hod than you will cultivating an acre. 
It is not things like onions that require the most 
work, but things like blackberries, asparagus, 
which require the most intelligence, that pay the 
most. The following are average crops per year : 

Beets, 300 to 400 bushels. 
Cabbage, 8,000 heads. 
Carrots, 200 to 30 bushels. 

Horseradish, 2 to 5 tons (it sells for ten to fifty dollars a ton). 
Onions, 300 to 400 bushels (but this can be doubled). 
Potatoes, 75 to 300 bushels. 
Rhubarb, 36,000 bunches. 
Salsify, 200 to 300 bushels. 

(These are actual averages per acre shown in Census Bulletin 
No. 237). 

But in averages, the crop of the man who 
farms with his head and gets big results is " aver- 
aged " with fifty who use neither brains nor fer- 
tilizers. Like the school teacher who asked what 



119 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

was the average wealth of a class of twenty which 
had altogether twenty dollars, and was told one 
dollar. But when he asked if they were not pros- 
perous, the boy at the foot said: " That depends 
on who has the twenty dollars." Yet good aver- 
ages imply some wonderful yields. 

In the "Horticulturist's Rule Book" Prof. 
L. H. Bailey gives the following table of average 
yields per acre in vegetables and fruits : 

Beans (green or string) 200 to 300 bushels 

Beans (lima) 75 to 100 bushels 

Beets 400 to 700 bushels 

Carrots ' 400 to 700 bushels 

Cranberries 100 to 300 bushels 

Cucumbers 150,000 fruits 

Currants 100 bushels 

Kohlrabi 500 to 1000 bushels 

Onions (from seed) 300 to 800 bushels 

Parsnips 500 to 800 bushels 

Peas (in pod) 100 to 150 bushels 

Potatoes 100 to 300 bushels 

Salsify 200 to 300 bushels 

Spinach 200 barrels 

Tomatoes 8 to 16 tons 

Turnips 600 to 1000 bushels 

Apples (trees 25 to 30 yrs. old) alternate years) . .25 to 40 bushels 

Peaches (in full bearing) 5 to 40 bushels 

Plums 5 to 8 bushels 

Pears (20 to 25 yrs. old) 25 to 45 bushels 

Blackberries 1600 to 3200 quarts 

Raspberries 1600 to 3200 quarts 

Strawberries 2400 to 9600 quarts 



A LITTLE LAND • 120 

AND A LIVING 

You've read many advertisements of fortunes 
to be made in tropical plantations, yet the yields 
advertised as marvellous are only $500 to $1200 
per acre. Many market gardeners and nursery- 
men near our great cities can beat that. Don't 
take chances in a wilderness when you can do bet- 
ter at home. 

Philadelphia market gardeners pay $25 to $50 
an acre rent for five to forty acres each. Land as 
fertile can be bought for less than this, but they 
are right at the market and can sell their produce 
direct. Manure costs nothing and they can get 
the contents of privy wells delivered on their 
farms free; trolleys and telephones are at their 
service and they market two to three crops a year. 
They employ several men for each acre. They 
study to find, not what most people grow, but 
what crops will bring the most profits. 

In his "Book of Vegetables and Garden 
Herbs " Allen French says that Jerusalem arti- 
chokes* are more profitable than potatoes and 



* Farmer's Bulletin No. 92, page 21, 1899, tells of an experi- 
ment made by the D^jartment of Agriculture in feeding pigs 
upon artichokes at the Oregon station. A portion of the plot was 



121 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

just as valuable for food. They will yield from 
600 to 1000 bushels per acre, will grow in any dry 
soil and may be used like potatoes. 

The French Globe artichoke is the favorite for 
table use, and is so little grown here that it brings 
a good price in the market. 

Seed of the French Globe artichoke can be 
sown in boxes in the house or in a hot bed about 
the first of March, and set out in the open ground 
about the end of May, in a deep, rich, moist soil, 
not too wet. Generally they do not bear until the 
second year, although if they get an early start 
and the season is favorable they may begin to 
appear in September. Like asparagus, they will 
beai for many years. In the North they need 
some winter protection; they should be tied to 
stakes in November, and the whole rows above 
the tops of the plants covered with earth and a 
layer of stable manure. The edible part is the 
flower head, which must be cut before fully ex- 
measured and the artichokes dug to determine the yield, which 
was found to be 740 bushels per acre. The pigs gained 24 pounds 
from October 22nd to December 11th at a saving of two pounds 
of grain for each pound of live weight over the usual methods 
of feeding. 



A LITTLE LAND 122 

AND A LIVING 

panded, boiled, well drained and served with 
Hollandaise sauce. No vegetable is more deli- 
cious. 

Asparagus is a profitable crop. The main cost 
to establish a bed is labor, manure, and the use 
of the land two years. Part of a crop can be had 
the second year without injury. To maintain a 
bed costs per acre about : 

For manure (applied in the Spring) $25 .00 

Fertilizer (applied after cutting) 15.00 

Labor, plowing, cultivating, hoeing, etc 20 . 00 

Cutting and bunching 40.00 

$100.00 

When well established, say in five years, and 
well cared for, it should produce 1800 to 2000 
bunches a year for the next ten to fifteen years. 
At the factory price of ten cents a bunch this 
would be $180 to $200. 

By free use of proper fertilizers and through 
careful culture, it is said that six tons per acre 
can be raised, which at $100 per ton would be 
$600, while the cost would hardly be $150 per 
acre, leaving $400 per acre profit. 

Brussels Sprouts cost to grow $30, yield fre- 



123 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

quently over 3000 quarts of miniature cabbage 
heads per acre, which sell at 10 to 30 cents per 
quart. Average net returns $555 per acre, but 
the market is limited. 

Cabbage average twenty-two tons per acre. 
Price from $8 to $10 per ton. Easy to grow, 
gather and pack. One grower netted $935 from 
three acres. 

Cabbage seed, one of the specialties of Long 
Island, which is the biggest producer, nets over 
$400 per acre, but is not an easy crop to grow. 

Cauliflower, where there is a good rainfall, is 
a delicacy that can be grown in large quantities 
in the open air. The crop requires care, but pro- 
tected and blanched, its floweret-formed head 
nets a profit per acre averaging over two hundred 
dollars. 

Other vegetables easily raised and profitable, 
although not common, include cardon and chard, 
of the artichoke family; sea-kale, leek, lentils, 
corn-salad, kohlrabi, celeriac, and egg-plant. But 
with all these you must be sure of your market in 
order to be likely to get a profit. Chard may be 
made by cutting back Globe artichoke leaves and 



A LITTLE LAND 124 

AND A LIVING 

tying the new growth of leaves at the tips to 
blanch for about a month. All these vegetables 
grow well in temperate latitude. 

Tobacco pays on the right soil — 2000 pounds 
per acre can be raised. Connecticut tobacco 
brings twenty to thirty cents a pound, or four 
to six hundred dollars per acre for a good crop. 
Some soils in Connecticut raise tobacco equal to 
Sumatra, which sells here for about $3.50 a 
pound. It is claimed that in parts of Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio Cuban tobacco can be grown. 
Soil is of such importance in tobacco growing 
that the Department of Agriculture is making 
soil maps of the important tobacco sections. 
Write for them if interested. 

Mushrooms can be grown as a supplement that 
interferes with nothing else in the winter time. 
The new method of germ isolation and spore 
culture has cut out much of the uncertainty. The 
only things needed now, besides knowledge, to 
insure success is an even temperature, careful at- 
tention, plenty of good barnyard manure and 
commercial sense enough to get your product 
sold to advantage. An outhouse, cellar, limekiln 



125 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

or waste space for a greenhouse will answer for 
mushroom culture. 

Don't forget to find out about the wild mush- 
rooms that are good eating, for your own ben- 
efit. There is only one poisonous family, whilst 
there are more than a hundred wholesome ones 
that conmionly grow wild. So it is only neces- 
sary to learn the dangerous ones and then eat 
with confidence any mushroom that tastes nice, 
provided it has pink gills or looks like coral or 
grows on wood or is a tender young pufF ball. 

That there is another side to agricultural pros- 
pects the following letter states clearly: 

" Those who do any farming are rarely very 
enthusiastic about it. There is something truly 
diabolical about the uncertainties of nature in 
connection with growing things, when it is neces- 
sary to get definite results. In chemistry it is 
possible, by experiment, to get exact results. We 
know that certain things, in definite amounts, will 
always produce a definite something. We can be 
absolutely certain. But in farming it is not so. 
Man can study his soils, and plant his seeds, ever 
so scientifically, but there is an element that con- 



A LITTLE LAND 126 

AND A LIVING 

trols the results far more than seed or soil, over 
which man has no control, and that is the climate. 
Nature performs such freaks in this domain that 
farming seems a little less certain than most 
forms of gambling. For instance, a cold north 
wind has been blowing down here in Alabama, 
for the past ten days or more, that is blasting 
everything — after they had been growing for 
weeks in the soft summer air. Once, in Colorado, 
we had ten acres of navy beans. They were grow- 
ing wonderfully; we expected to make between 
$1000 and $2000 easily; had the beans all sold to 
hotels in Denver, before the crop was half grown. 
It was the marvel of the whole country; people 
came from far and near to see those beans. We 
were not farmers ; had no experience. Just pure 
"luck." We were spending the summer out 
there, and raised the beans to see what we could 
do. Well, early in August there came a hard 
freeze one night. The next morning our beans 
were utterly destroyed. The " oldest inhabitant " 
had never heard of such a freeze that time of the 
year. We had a neighbor in Colorado who in the 
early days made $900 one year on potatoes. He 



127 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

has farmed ever since, he and his whole family 
working like slaves, and they barely make a liv- 
ing. Who can tell what made such a truly mirac- 
ulous yield that one year? It is beyond the sub- 
tlest science, evidently. I know dozens of cases 
like these. Men who devote themselves to farm- 
ing for years, who study every detail with the 
greatest care, know that they never can tell, an 
hour ahead of the actual harvesting of things, 
what they will get. I wish it were not so. It 
makes living a hard proposition, even if the land 
was properly distributed, and all had a chance." 

This is all true of farming big acreage for lit- 
tle crops. But before the chart and the compass 
and steam came into use, the sailor had just such 
risks as our farmer has now. He also was at the 
mercy of the weather. 

Now, what are the risks of the farmer? Tor- 
nadoes? A lumber business or a factory is 
equally exposed to those. Drought or excessive 
rains? Cultivation or irrigation protect against 
the one, and trenching and draining against the 
other. Insects and diseases? We know how to 
combat those. Late frosts or early frosts? Hot 



A LITTLE LAND 128 

AND A LIVING 

beds and setting out plants avoid the late chills 
and bring the vegetables to maturity before the 
early frosts. There remain summer hail storms, 
but compared with fire and other risks in other 
businesses, this is insignificant. 

If that farmer, instead of working like a slave, 
had thought like a scientist, he would know why 
he had made big profits one year and only a living 
since. 

In fact, the scientific farmer, who cultivates 
not scores of acres, but the little patch that he 
can watch and manage, is in no more danger than 
any other business man, and he does not suffer 
from strikes and cannot be discharged. 

But one may not ignore the condition of the 
ordinary farmer. Let us take the actual case of 
a farmer living near Ghent owning 160 acres, of 
the average value of $20 per acre; total $3200. 
One hundred and fifteen acres are in cultivation. 
If this produces $87.50 per acre, the gross aver- 
age in the New York Vacant Lots, we have a 
gross value of $10,062.50. Now, the New York 
" Vacant Lots Cultivation Report " based its es- 
timated valuation on wholesale market prices, but 



129 REASONABLE 

PROSPECTS 

retail prices were generally received by the plant- 
ers. The U. S. Agricultural Department calcu- 
lates that the farmer receives 60 per cent, of the 
retail price. This gives him gross, $6037.50. 
That is what he ought to get. 

Out of this he has to pay interest on mortgage 
of say $1300, $78; taxes, $48; seed, $60, leaving 
$5851.50 for wages, machinery, tools, food, cloth- 
ing, insurance, repairs and general expenses. 

On this farm it takes two young men to do the 
work, so we must divide all the items and the re- 
sult in halves to represent the result of the work 
of one. We find $2921.25 as his gross income, 
after paying the interest, taxes and seed. 

On this showing he would do very well ; but see : 
The farmer whose real expenditures we have 
taken is forced to till poor land, and tills far too 
much of it, and probably, cut off by his isolation 
from the sources and stimulus of instruction, he 
tills it badly, and the actual product is only 
$264.50 for each man, less $93 each for the three 
items specified, leaving $171.50 each for all other 
expenses and for " profit." That is what he does 
get. 



A LITTLE LAND 130 

AND A LIVING 

This is a very diif erent result from that of the 
poor people, working land near New York on an 
intensive scale with good instruction. 

Of course in most cases, seed, and in some cases, 
fertilizer, were given these people, but we must 
remember that if they had even a five years' lease 
of this unused land they could supply their own 
seed and pay this back besides, and that if they 
had the use of all the fertile unused land about 
our cities they would not need to buy fertilizers. 



CHAPTER V 

RECORD YIELDS 

Possibilities — Production and Cost — A Standard — Records 
— A Garden for Five — School Gardens — Small Plots — 
Yields of " Poor " Soil — Celery — Texas Onions — Corn 
Record — Strawberry Yields — Rhubarb — « Christmas 
Trade — A House-cellar Patch — Forcing Cellar — Onions 
by New Culture — Asparagus. 

NONE of the figures we give show the full 
possibilities of an acre. No man can 
measure that; the only question is how far it 
will pay to increase its products. You could 
not hope to "beat the record" with a horse 
or with a yacht unless you have hundreds of 
thousands of dollars to spend. Nor to make 
a new record in the mile run or the high 
jump without a special physique or long 
training; but by experiment through tillage and 
care, an ordinary person may surpass the best rec- 
ords shown in crops, or may develop new trees 
and plants that will benefit the world. Hitherto, 

131 



A LITTLE LAND 132 

AND A LIVING 

truck farmers and market gardeners have origi- 
nated most modern improvements in farming. 

The farmer does not usually even notice how 
much he raises per acre; he has plenty of land, 
and the only question that interests him is how 
many bushels he can get altogether and what they 
cost. Besides, he has neither the time nor the ed- 
ucation to tabulate results. 

The Experiment Stations are so occupied with 
more pressing problems — insects, varieties, hy- 
bridization, inoculation, fertilizers, and so on, 
that they have not given much attention to the 
maximum increase of crops nor to the proportion 
of increase of cost. 

A healthy interest could be excited and much 
valuable information be obtained if the Agricul- 
tural Societies and Granges would ask the exper- 
iment stations and progressive farmers to figure 
out records as standards for each crop raised in 
their neighborhood by which progress could be 
measured. We have abundant well established 
" records " of high jumping, of speed of horses, 
of automobile runs and a thousand other things, 
why not of the productivity of acres? 



133 RECORD 

YIELDS 

While many elements enter into this problem, 
only a httle common sense and practical knowl- 
edge are needed to fix profitable standards, and 
it would bring great benefits. A standard would 
differ materially from an average. All averages 
are misleading, especially those shown by the cen- 
sus, and unless you use brains and raise more 
than the average, you will make but a bare living, 
though comfort and even luxury are easily within 
your reach. 

It would be easy to get a lot of unverified 
newspaper clippings about astonishing harvests, 
and profits like the ghost stories in the mining ad- 
vertisements. But the records given here have 
been investigated by the writers or else rest upon 
unimpeached authority, which we quote. Un- 
questionably they are not the best ever, and pos- 
sibly some errors will remain ; but they are given 
in the belief that they will bring out many better 
records, and perhaps some corrections. 

However, the record that interests you the 
most, is the record of what you can get and how. 

The old way of getting a bare living from 
much land and great labor has no attraction for 



A LITTLE LAND I34 

AND A LIVING 

the average man, nor should it have. If Nature 
were the niggard she has sometimes seemed to be, 
we would owe her no gratitude. In reality she 
has provided a wholesome and bountiful living 
for the average family in every acre of soil, and 
if we do not get it, the fault is our own. 

It must be borne in mind that in most cases 
three or four crops or more can be grown on the 
same land during one season. 

If we raise only one crop, we will not get a 
good living from even ten acres ; that is no fault 
of the soil; it is due rather to ignorance or care- 
lessness. 

A few years ago Professor Bailey said that 
100x150 feet of land, if well tilled, will give a 
family of five an ample supply of all kinds of 
vegetables, except potatoes. 

Now comes Mrs. Helena R. Ely and says that 
a plot of ground 20 x 30 feet, or l-5th of Prof. 
Bailey's estimate, if well fertilized and well cared 
for, will yield cauliflower, egg-plants, lettuce, 
peppers, parsley and tomatoes for a family of 
eight persons. If one chose to vary the list some- 
what the results would be about the same. Two 



135 



RECORD 
YIELDS 



five-cent packages of each variety of seed, except 
cauliflower, which costs ten cents, will raise more 
than sufiicient plants. The seeds should be sown 
in March, either in boxes in a sunny window, or in 
a hot bed, and set out about May 20th ; or plants 
may be bought and set out at that time. A 
very little regular attention is all that is needed 
by such a plot. 

By putting in a new crop as soon as one was 
harvested. School Garden boys, eleven to twelve 
years old, raised on a sixteenth of an acre, 336 
bunches of radishes, 110 bunches of onions, 368 
heads of lettuce, 89 bunches of beets, 8 bushels of 
beans, 7 bushels of tomatoes, 7 bunches of car- 
rots, and 1 peck of turnips, besides nasturtiums 
and petunias, many boxes of which found their 
way to the hospitals of the city. This was at 
Washington on the grounds of the Department 
of Agriculture. At regular market prices $55 
worth of produce was gathered from the small 
plot. This is at the rate of $960 per acre. The 
report naively remarks, "experienced farmers 
sometimes fail to do as well." (U. S. Bulletin 
No. 160.) 



A LITTLE LAND 136 

AND A LIVING 

The best lay-out for an acre garden for easy- 
cultivation is about 132 X 339 feet, and easy cul- 
tivation is an important factor in creating profits. 
In one such garden in Pennsylvania, one-half 
acre was planted with strawberries, one-half with 
early beans, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, 
cucumbers, lettuce, melons, onions, peas, pota- 
toes, sweet corn, tomatoes, while the last row was 
set with Hathaway raspberries and Blowers 
blackberries. This garden fed a large family, 
provided vegetables and fruit for winter can- 
ning, and furnished $300 worth of surplus veg- 
etables and fruit for market. 

On Prof. W. G. Johnson's truck farm in 
Palatka, Fla., between the sowing of lettuce seed 
on September 23d and the first of January fol- 
lowing, the profits of half an acre amounted to 
$295. Three crops of lettuce were gathered from 
the same land during the year, with celery and 
cucumbers intervening. The celery yielded from 
650 to 850 crates per acre, ranging in price from 
$1.25 to $3.00 per crate. 

Half an acre of land in Bath Co., Kentucky, 
on the farm of V. C. Razor, was made produc- 



137 RECORD 

YIELDS 

tive by successive crops. In 1905 it was planted 
first in strawberries, which sold for $60.00. The 
second crop was of sugar corn and pole beans. 
Besides supplying two families, $12.00 worth of 
corn was sold, and the poor ears were used to fat- 
ten a pig. Of the beans, some were sold, some 
given away, a great many were eaten by the two 
families, and a bushel was dried for winter use. 
When the frost came, rye was sowed and har- 
rowed with a disc harrow. This furnished excel- 
lent pasture for pigs and chickens all winter, and 
in the spring was turned into the ground as 
manure. 

A 25 X 25 foot garden at Rhode Island Agri- 
cultural College yielded vegetables worth $32.18 
at market rates, or at the rate of five cents per 
square foot per acre. Three cents per square 
foot is considered a good gross yield.* 

* One of the students at the Normal School at Washington, 
D. C, cultivated half of his back yard, and raised enough vegeta- 
bles to feed a family of eight persons all summer. This garden 
patch was about 18 x 15 feet. At that rate an acre would have 
fed 1290 persons. 

A preacher in Indiana Co., Pa., on a patch equalling about 
one-fiftieth of an acre, raised beans, peas, some strawberry plants, 
and a fine crop of tomatoes. The vegetables supplied all the wants 
of a family of four. 



A LITTLE LAND igg 

AND A LIVING 

To prove that any soil could be made produc- 
tive by reasonable care and preparation, Mr. C. 
E. Conwell, a business man of New York City, 
chose two acres of poor, hard, clayey soil, almost 
impossible to plow, for potatoes. The land was 
plowed in June and sown with a mixture of oats, 
rye and peas. In August this whole crop was 
plowed under and then harrowed in. The land 
was next plowed in May and planted with Peer- 
less potatoes on May 9th. The yield in October 
was 964 bushels of perfect tubers which sold for 
50 cents a bushel. Mr. Conwell says that his ex- 
pense for that first yield was $156.15 ; his returns 
$482.00, leaving a balance of $325.85 on his two 
years' work. The following year the same plot 
yielded 985 bushels. After that, for several suc- 
ceeding years, the yield fell off slightly, but what 
was lost in quantity was more than offset by im- 
provement in quality. 

But large returns are not restricted to potatoes. 
Alfred P. Edge, of Hartford Co., Maryland, set 
out celery plants in rows 6 inches apart and 3 
inches apart in the rows, in a bed 54 x 6J feet, get- 
ting 11 rows of 230 plants each, or a total of 



1 sg RECORD 

YIELDS 

2530 plants. He sold and used 2220 plants, re- 
ceiving 5 cents each for 720, and 4 cents each for 
1500, making an income of $96.00 from 352 
square feet. 

At this rate of yield and price an acre would 
give 277,500 plants and bring in $12,000. But it 
would not be practical to plant an acre so closely, 
because it would make cultivation almost impos- 
sible. 

Kalamazoo, Mich., is the real centre of celery 
culture in America, about 200 acres of marsh 
land being under cultivation there. Most of the 
work is done by Holland families, the women and 
children working in the fields with the men. One 
man can tend two or three acres, or from 40,000 
to 60,000 plants. [The returns average about 
$200 to the acre. 

Before the severe freeze of 1895 oranges were 
almost the only crop grown in Orange County, 
Florida. Celery growing has since developed 
and is becoming more general every year. Twelve 
hundred crates to the acre is considered a good 
yield, the income therefrom being $1680. This is 
net income at point of shipment. 



A LITTLE LAND 140 

AND A LIVING 

The possibilities of onions as profit makers are 
only now becoming known. 

Referring to his success in raising Bermuda 
onions on his farm in Texas, Mr. E. L. Hoffman 
writes : 

" The statement in the land advertisement that 
we cleared $10,000 net profit from 20 acres of 
Bermuda onions is not exactly correct. We, how- 
ever, did clear a net profit of $500, after paying 
freight and commission, from one single acre of 
onions, but the whole 20 acres did not average us 
quite $300 an acre. In rough figures I could say 
that last year's crop ran about 18,000 lbs. to the 
acre." 

Mr. John Closner, of Hidalgo, Texas, says he 
made a net profit of $11,000 on 33 acres of 
onions. The yield was 36 car-loads. 

The average onion yield in the United States 
is 200 bushels per acre, although in Connecticut 
it runs from 350 to 500 bushels. E. N. Foote, of 
Northampton, Mass., has made a specialty of 
onion-raising and this year has averaged 800 
bushels per acre, with some acres yielding 1000 
bushels. Formerly his highest yield has been 910 



141 



RECORD 
YIELDS 



bushels, but he expects to get 1200 from some of 
his acres later on. His crop this year, covering 
25 acres, brought from $12,000 to $14,000. 

Corn is the staple American product, but there 
are many other things that give larger returns for 
time and labor expended. The yield of corn per 
acre for 1906 was 31 bushels; this is the general 
average. The prize offered by the American Ag- 
riculturist for the best yield for that year was 
won by J. A. Tindale, Clarendon County, S. C, 
with 182 bushels. But this does not touch the 
world's record, won in a similar contest in 1889 
by Z. J. Drake, of Marlboro Co., with 217 bushels 
of chemically dry corn, or 255 bushels green 
weight, to one acre. That little 150 bushels of 
corn extra which Mr. Tindale raised was the re- 
ward of intelligent effort; but unless someone 
will give you a prize it won't pay to try for it. 

Henry Jerolaman, of New Jersey, is known 
as the Strawberry King of the World. His farm 
has been producing strawberries for more than 
forty years. When it was the property of Seth 
Boyden, it produced in 1869 the world's record 
for size, and the berry was called after the 



A LITTLE LAND 142 

AND A LIVING 

American Agriculturist. Mr. Jerolaman has 
beaten that record more than once ; Prof. W. G. 
Johnson says that Mr. Jerolaman has produced 
berries four inches in diameter. Four inches di- 
ameter would make a big apple. They hold the 
world's record and are likely to for some time to 
come. 

Large, sweet, good flavored berries, Mr. Jero- 
laman says, sell on sight, and never glut the mar- 
ket. Of the berries raised on his farm, thirteen 
usually fill a quart box ; he considers 6,000 quarts 
per acre a good yield. 

Mr. Frederick Wright, of New Jersey, is au- 
thority for the statement that the Climax Straw- 
berry has yielded 6300 quarts on less than J acre. 
Mr. Wright saw the field in bearing in the ground 
of the originator of the Climax, Mr. H. W. Gra- 
ham, White Haven, Md. (in 1903, I think) . 

Two years ago, Mr. T. C. Kevitt, Athenia, 
N. J., had an acre of Glen Mary strawberries 
that yielded 21,780 quarts. Mr. H. W. Colling- 
wood. Editor of The Rural New Yorker, went 
over to Mr. Kevitt's, measured the acre, and saw 
a portion of the berries picked, from a measured 



143 RECORD 

YIELDS 

space, and was convinced of the yield. Mr. 
Charles Wiley writes : " On a small plot in Bay 
Shore, on the place on Park Avenue which I sold 
to Mr. Cartwright, I raised at the rate of 35,000 
quarts to the acre of strawberries." That would 
carpet over two-thirds of the acre with a layer of 
good-sized berries. 

Perhaps the most wonderful story of straw- 
berries is that published in the Rural New 
Yorker, April 20th, 1907, and supported by affi- 
davits. Samuel Cooper, of Delevan, N. Y., 
grows strawberries out of doors as late as when 
the first snow falls. During 1903-'04,-'05,-'06 
he supplied late strawberries from August 7th 
to the end of October, to the Hotel Broezel, Buf- 
falo, N. Y., as well as to local customers. 

The largest quantity shipped on any one day 
in October was 20 quarts. Soon there will be no 
season without this luscious fruit. 

But strawberries have no monopoly as revenue 
producers. Any garden product that is better 
than the average of its kind, will fetch a good 
price, particularly if "out of season." Under 
old methods each season brought its own prod- 



A LITTLE LAND I44 

AND A LIVING 

ucts; now we have almost annihilated seasons so 
far as garden truck is concerned. 

Mrs. P. Bailey, of California, says: "When 
a girl, I had the picking and selling of the straw- 
berries, and I see by my old note book that I sold 
more than $100.00 worth of berries from our bed. 
It was about 20 x 20 feet, if I remember rightly, 
and during the month of June I sold more than 
$40.00 worth and had regular customers for the 
berries all summer." 

That was at Stockton, California, but Mrs. 
Bailey now has a httle home of her own at Sali- 
nas, and of this she says: " I get all the berries 
we can eat from a little bed of six rows — 12 feet 
long, and have put up some and given away a 
few. There was a man called on Sunday and he 
was surprised at our little home garden and said 
he liked the strawberries best of all. As he has 
just bought a little home of his own, he wants a 
good patch of strawberries right away." 

Rhubarb is another profitable crop, and J. E. 
Morse, in " New Rhubarb Culture," tells how it is 
forced for the Christmas market. All that is 
necessary is the complete exclusion of light and 



145 RECORD 

YIELDS 

frost, maintaining a small degree of heat, and a 
little regular attention. 

Although specially constructed forcing cellars 
are desirable for large crops, Mr. Morse tells of 
a rhubarb patch, 36x54 feet, in a house cellar 
which gave $144 in returns. It was partitioned 
from the rest of the cellar, kept perfectly dark 
and heated by two ordinary kerosene house lamps 
with chimneys smoked to prevent them lighting 
the patch. The light from even a small lamp will 
bleach the stalks near it. It requires little ferti- 
lizer, heat or moisture, so that there is no disagree- 
able odor in the cellar where grown, if the roots 
are taken up as soon as the forcing season is 
over.* 

As forced rhubarb requires little soil, even a 
cellar with a cement floor can be used, two or 
three inches of earth on the surface being suffi- 
cient. Rhubarb is a hardy northern native, and 
does not thrive in warm countries. The best re- 
sults are obtained if the roots are frozen before 

* The expense of building forcing-cellars varies with their size, 
but need not be great, especially if old lumber is used. From 
such a cellar, 12 x SO feet, the returns for one winter amounted 
to more than $160.00. 



A LITTLE LAND 146 

AND A LIVING 

transplanting. The same roots will not do for 
forcing two seasons in succession. 

The new method of cultivating vegetables in 
the field during winter has been successfully ap- 
plied to rhubarb. Exhaust or waste steam is 
forced through numerous tunnels running be- 
tween the beds, thus keeping the ground moist 
and at the proper temperature. This is prefer- 
able to heating by steam pipes. The returns 
from rhubarb thus forced are from $100.00 to 
$500.00 per acre. 

As Greiner says in his " New Onion Culture," 
these new methods, accompanied by transplant- 
ing, are wonderfully successful when applied to 
onions. By the new culture an acre will yield 
from 1000 to 1500 bushels of onions. It cost 
$300 to produce 1000 bushels upon one acre; the 
price received was $750.00, leaving a profit of 
$450.00 for the acre. 

But a prominent grower estimates that it costs 
only $100.00 per acre to prepare the soil, start 
seedlings, transplant, cultivate, weed and pull the 
crop when the new culture methods are followed. 
From 800 to 1000 bushels per acre is a frequent 



147 RECORD 

YIELDS 

yield and will cost little more to produce than 500 
bushels. Transplanting increases the quan- 
tity and greatly improves the quality of the 
yield.* 

The new methods of culture apply to aspara- 
gus also, a crop not so generally grown as it 
should be, the prevailing idea being that it does 
not greatly reward attention. F. M. Hexamer 
in "Asparagus" shows what a mistake this is. 
Nothing better repays care, but it is necessary to 
grow it from good seed. One pound of seed will 
produce 10,000 plants, about half of which will 
be vigorous, the others should be thinned out. It 
requires about three years to get a thoroughly 
profitable crop. 

A New Jersey grower cut 22,584 bunches of 
asparagus from 12 acres, all of which were not in 
full bearing, or 1882 bunches per acre. His net 
returns from the commission houses were $2611, 
or a little more than 11 cents a bunch. Higher 

*The Department of Agriculture (Bulletin No. 39 on Onion 
Culture), says that at the Ohio station 10 selected transplanted 
Prize-taker bulbs weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces. A decided in- 
crease was noted in the 14 different varieties tried, amounting in 
some cases to 100 per cent. 



A LITTLE LAND 148 

AND A LIVING 

prices and larger yields are common enough, but 
this is a fair average. 

The average annual yield of one acre was 
2500 bunches; value 12 J to 25 cents per bunch; 
the net yearly returns for ten years averaged over 
$550 per acre.* 

Asparagus yields for thirty years, but good 
business policy dictates renewal after ten years' 
cropping. 

* Great stories are being told about the profits of growing 
asparagus in California. We read of farms with over 100 acres 
of asparagus in one field, and also of profits of $1,500 on one 
acre. A Massachusetts asparagus grower who is ranked as a 
large operator here, sends a clipping and writes: 

" I enclose one which tells of a profit of $1,000 per acre. 
Now, this is for blanched asparagus and is a long way ahead of 
anything we can show. Incidentally the white asparagus is not 
fit to eat, but if they get such ' profits ' they do not care much 
for the quality. In New Jersey one man writes me of $1,500 
profit on three acres exclusive of freight and commission. My 
best yield on a 15-acre field was $450 per acre. One of my towns- 
men received last year $1,000 from If acres, and another $450 per 
acre, but the rust had not hurt them much. Who under the sun 
can tell a 'bigger story' than a California westerner? Even 
Eastern people who go there catch the ' fever.' My wife came 
home from Los Angeles a few years ago and told me that some 
of the guests in a large hotel in Californa had to walk half a 
mile to their meals in the building! It reminded me of a Nova 
Scotia man who said they had trees so tall down there that it 
took a man and a small boy to look to the top of them. But 
really large stories are true in California." 

Rural New Yorker, May 25, '07. 



CHAPTER VI 

WAYS OF WORKING 

The Home Garden — First — Working the Soil — A Begin- 
ner's Garden — Save Labor — Fruit — Planting and Trans- 
planting — One Crop Risky — Companion Cropping — 
Specialties — Marketing — Succession Crops — Deepening 
Cultivation— Subsoiling — Soil Enriches Itself — Insects 
Smothered by Ashes — Winter Plowing to Kill — Spraying 
— Fertilizers — Irrigation — Drainage — Dry Farming — 
Fancy Packing. 

NO matter what the profits of the farm are to 
come from, the home garden should have 
first attention ; that is what men five by, regardless 
of prices or hard times. It must be large enough 
to supply the family with food in abundance and 
variety, but, to economize labor, it should be 
larger than that. A quarter acre will give your 
family a succession of vegetables in summer and 
fall, and potatoes and turnips for the winter. It 
will take about four days to dig it over and four 
to plant. 

The part kept for radishes, lettuce, beets, 

149 



A LITTLE LAND 15q 

AND A LIVING 

spinach, Swiss chard, peas, string and wax beans, 
may be dug over for three successive plantings, 
but that used for early potatoes would need dig- 
ging only twice; the second time when you are 
planting late cabbage or turnips. Plow it if pos- 
sible, in the fall, so that the freezing and thaw- 
ing will break up sods and clods. Before plow- 
ing, manure with twenty-five heaping wagon- 
loads to the acre. 

After manuring and plowing use a disc or cut- 
away harrow till the soil is fine as dust. Then 
your seeds will have a chance to grow. Mrs. Ful- 
lerton says: "Weeds are the farmer's best 
friends, they force him to cultivate, but every 
stone, weed or clod left, destroys part of the food 
your plants must live on. Don't be deluded with 
the sluggard's reason that " the stones warm the 
ground." 

For beginners who want fresh fruits and vege- 
tables from May till Christmas 100x200 feet is 
enough ; a regular fruit garden alone takes about 
100x100 feet. 

To get the best results, the chief factors are 
nearness to market, rotation of crops, saving of 



J 51 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

labor in cultivation and keeping up the fertility 
of the land. When the land is near the market 
the product can be peddled or sold to customers, 
which makes a big saving of capital in crates, 
storage room and teaming. 

To save labor we must plant in long rows each 
just wide enough apart to allow the furrows of 
the wheel-hoe to cover the whole ground between 
both small plants and large ones without read- 
justing the blades. 

If you plant in beds you can't use the wheel- 
hoe well, and you'll probably plant yourself in 
your own bed with backache. Choose a southern 
exposure ; as this gets all the sun, it will make the 
earliest garden. Lay out a plan of your land, 
and whether for home use or for market : — 

(1) Plant in rows; 100 feet of anything is usually 
enough. 

(2) Put asparagus, rhubarb, sweet herbs, and other 
permanent vegetables in a row at one side so that you can 
plow the rest easily. Run the rows north and south so that 
each row will get the sun from the east in the morning and 
from the west in the afternoon. 

(3) Plant together vegetables of the same height, tall 
ones back at the north end so as not to shade the others; 
and see that there are woods, a hedge or a building for 



A LITTLE LAND 152 

AND A LIVING 

a breakwind against the prevailing winter wind; this will 
often give vegetables a fortnight earlier in the spring and 
from two to six weeks later in the fall. 

(4) Plant vegetables that ripen at the same time near 
one another. 

(5) Practice rotation; for instance, lima beans should 
not follow green beans or peas; and, as far as possible, 
put the plants subject to the same diseases and insects 
together. 

A row of apple trees about fifteen feet apart 
might go on the northern border, plums and pears 
on the west, and cherries and peaches on the east. 

Put a grape trellis next the apples, then a row 
of blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries and cur- 
rants. These will form the windbreak to protect 
the vegetables besides adding income. Small 
fruits planted this year will bear next year. Then 
between these and the vegetable rows you can put 
the rhubarb and asparagus. 

When it comes to planting it is important to 
plant seeds at the proper depth. If you plant 
them too thickly it is easy to thin them out when 
they grow. 

Transplanting can be done on a large scale. 
Many vegetables are greatly benefited by it; it 
gives each plant room to develop, as well as econ- 



153 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

omizing space. This is especially true of lettuce 
and salad plants. Lettuce may be started under 
cover in old berry boxes and the boxes then 
plunged in the soil. 

Onions also gain greatly and about as much 
labor is saved in thinning and weeding as it takes 
to transplant. For fine grades, these gains are 
important. The soil must be kept busy all the 
time; if idle even for a week, weeds will grow 
which steal the food from your paying crops. 

Ernest RoUenbeck says that as soon as early 
peas are harvested he plants squash. If sweet 
peas are grown, a row of onions may be grown 
on each side of the peas, without detriment to 
either. Late cabbage may be set in the rows of 
early onions and make their growth after the 
onion harvest. This gives three crops. 

To raise but one crop is risky; its failure may 
ruin you. With a number of crops, what hurts 
one may help another, and even a complete fail- 
ure of one will not be so serious. 

Companion cropping grows two crops in the 
same soil at the same time, one maturing early 
and leaving the ground free for the main crop. 



A LITTLE LAND I54 

AND A LIVING 

In this way late celery is planted between the 
rows of early celery; radishes with beets or car- 
rots ; before the beets need all the room the rad- 
ishes mature; corn with squashes, citron, pump- 
kin or beans; horseradish or early onions with 
cauliflower or cabbage. Lettuce with early cab- 
bage, etc.* 

No one need fear that his land will become too 
rich.f 

Specialties often pay better than general 
crops. The returns can be made immediate and 
the work almost continuous, through compan- 
ion cropping. 

Marketing is an important item in success, 

* A complete planting table for vegetables is printed in the 
appendix of " Three Acres and Liberty." 

f At a recent meeting of the New York Florists' Club, M. H. 
Weezenaar, of Holland, made the following statement as reported 
in "The Florists' Exchange": 

" Land in Holland adapted for the cultivation of hyacinths, 
he said, runs from $2,000 to $3,000 per acre. The manure used 
amounted to something like $1,000 an acre, in addition to which 
there was a big water tax, levied for service of the pumping en- 
gines, the water having to be pumped at certain seasons from 
the canal. 

The soil in which the hyacinth bulbs are planted is dug to a 
depth of three feet, the work being done in winter, the aim being 
to get as much frost as possible into the soil. When spring arrives, 
from 10 to 15 inches of pure cow manure is dug into the soil to 



155 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

and judging from the prosperous condition of 
the savings banks in Long Island and Jersey it 
seems clear that the farmers have studied the 
markets to good purpose. 

One of the earliest centres for truck farming 
was along the Chesapeake Bay, where oyster 
boats were employed to send the produce to the 
markets of Baltimore and Philadelphia; so the 
gardeners about New York early began push- 
ing out along Long Island, using the Sound for 
transportation. The eastern shore of Lake 
Michigan is another sample of the effect of con- 
venient water transportation in causing an early 
development of this industry. 

The time spent in "pro-ducing" is not only 
the time between putting the seed in the ground 
and putting the crop in the basket. The pro- 
ducer is one who brings things forward, and 

a depth of one foot. In that soil are planted potatoes, peas or 
beans, either for seed or market. In August the products are 
gathered. The same soil is then dug to a depth of 1^ feet, cow 
manure being again applied to it. The beds are rounded and 
there is a ditch of about one foot broad and deep, dug along the 
sides of the beds to carry off the water. The bulbs are planted 
from 2 to 2J inches deep. The beds are then covered with reeds 
to a depth of 10 inches. This covering is not put on until the 
severe weather is past, the object being to allow freezing. 



A LITTLE LAND 156 

AND A LIVING 

production consists just as truly in getting it to 
market and seeing that it gets a fair chance there, 
as it does in buying the seed or in setting out the 
sprouted potatoes.* How much time may be 
spent in that part of production, depends upon 
the individual and it is not reckoned here. We 
calculate only the time spent in physical work, 
not the time spent in thinking how to do the 
work, which is more essential than money. You 
must be willing to work and work hard with your 
hands when necessary, but you can, after you get 
started, hire men who will not or cannot use their 
heads, to do most of the hard work. Corn, which 
everyone can raise, sells for half a cent a pound; 
mushrooms need care and skill and bring fifty 
cents a pound. 

Vegetables may be grown in rows between the 
trees in a young orchard. The best beans grow 
in orchards. Radishes, lettuce and cabbage may 
all grow at the same time in space used for one 
crop. 

* R. B. Greig in the Aberdeen and North of Scotland College 
of Agriculture Bulletin (No. 3) says that experiments with 
sprouted seed potatoes gave a gain of from one ton (say 35 
bushels) to three tons per acre. 



157 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

Plant corn after early lettuce and radishes are 
gathered, and more lettuce when beans are 
picked; then cabbage, cauliflower or spinach 
where the early corn grew, so that the small 
patch may earn your living and pay big divi- 
dends. Early potatoes and early cauliflower are 
followed by celery and Brussels sprouts. 

Onion seeds are sown between early planted 
onion sets. Then cauliflower is planted. Later 
we may put a few cucumber seeds between the 
cauliflower. The onion sets mature first and are 
gathered, then the cauliflower in time to permit 
free growth to the cucumbers. Between the 
seeds and onions we may plant radishes, lettuce, 
peppergrass or spinach, which will mature before 
their shade could hurt the seedling onions. Later, 
turnips may be sown between the onion rows. 

This gives two crops of onions as well as cauli- 
flower, cucumbers, radishes, and turnips from 
the same plot, and it leaves no chance at all for 
weeds. 

One can live while waiting for the crops to 
come up, for many crops mature rapidly. The 
accompanying diagram, taken from the United 



A LITTLE LAND 
AND A LIVING 



158 



States Agricultural Bulletin No. 149, will show 
the time various crops ripen and how they may 
follow one another: 



VEGETABLES. 


MAY 


JUNE 


JULY 


AUG. 


SEPT. 


OCT. 
































Lettuce 











Spinach 




Beet greens 
















Early potatoes 









String beans 




Cabbage 

Early carrots 

Sweet corn 


1 


























Lima beans 








Peppers 












Summer squash 

Cucumbers 








Muskmelons 

























See how one crop goes off to make room for 
another; most of them will be planted in the 
Spring and will be growing all together, but 



159 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

they don't need to take up your valuable land 
all together. You start the seeds in plates with 
wet brown paper, and the plants in " flats," shal- 
low boxes of earth, or in window boxes, cold 
frames, hot beds or glass houses and set them 
out intelligently. How to do that is a study by 
itself. For it is necessary that the crops should 
get their growth at sufficient intervals not to steal 
nourishment from one another. 

Of course, many crops, radishes for instance, 
may be grown, by successive plantings, right 
through the season, and late sweet corn may be 
planted as late as August 15th in the Central 
States. 

Three acres will give a good living on this 
basis. 

To produce big crops deepening cultivation 
is necessary. This is because the more soil sur- 
face exposed to the air, the greater the regain 
by that soil of the productiveness lost in former 
cropping. The market gardener who breaks 
and subsoils his land deeper each year down to 
a depth of 24 to 30 inches, will, if the under soil 
is good, greatly surpass the gardener who only 



A LITTLE LAND jgO 

AND A LIVING 

plows his land to a depth of 8 or 10 inches. The 
subsoiling should be done in the early fall or 
early spring. 

During drought the land should be thoroughly 
watered once a week and every precaution taken 
by careful drainage to prevent excessive wet. If 
cattle are kept, the soiling system should be pur- 
sued. 

If you have land enough you can keep one or 
more cows, if you can find folk willing to pay an 
extra price for milk they know to be pure and 
fresh and from well kept cows. At times grow- 
ers have to throw produce away. Sometimes it 
occurs through failure to find out in advance 
what vegetables are wanted and the probable ex- 
tent of the demand. Such surpluses would help 
the milk yield very much. 

If you can get land that has been in red clo- 
ver, alfalfa, soy beans, or cow peas, for years, so 
much the better. Bacteria on their roots draw, 
nitrogen from the air which becomes fixed in the 
soil. Nitrogen is the great meat maker and 
forces a prolonged and rapid growth. 

Mr. A. Crosby, of the Bureau of Plant In- 



161 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

dustry in Alabama and Mississippi, says that a 
farmer who had red hill land increased the yield 
of cotton six fold, from one-third of a bale to 
two bales, by merely putting in a crop of bur 
clover in the winter. The clover reseeded itself. 
Not bad use of an acre, especially if the cotton 
follows lettuce, radishes or tomatoes. Two hun- 
dred dollars' worth of cabbage, two bales of cot- 
ton, say at $75 per bale, and $75 worth of turnips 
seems to be about the record for this sort of farm- 
ing, but it can easily be beaten. ( See Year Book 
— United States Department of Agriculture, 
1905.) 

Many farmers have found that the inocula- 
tion of the soil with nitrogen bacteria * or the 
growing of clover, soy beans, or cow peas, will 
make a considerable difference in their yields. 

To manage insects (or infants) you must be 
interested in them and study them. It is fun 
and it pays in both cases. 

Ashes slacked in lime, or any other dust or 
powder freely put on leaves when dry, will 

* Note. Send to the Agricultural Department at Washington 
for the latest reports on this subject, which is an important and 
interesting experiment. 



A LITTLE LAND 162 

AND A LIVING 

smother most of the insects so destructive to 
plants. Winter plowing kills cut worms. As 
each family of vegetables has its own peculiar 
bugs, constant change to new soil keeps the bugs 
from getting a good start. This is only one of 
the advantages of the rotation of crops. 

Even if you raise fruits and nuts that need 
no hands and knees work (which in any case can 
be reduced to the minimum by the use of the 
wheel-hoe), the time to fence off borers with a 
circle of tin pushed a few inches into the soft 
soil is just when the borers threaten; the time to 
spray is before and after the bloom, and gen- 
erally if you won't or don't do these things, they 
will be done too late or will not get done at all. 

You would better run an office without a type- 
writing machine, than a farm without a spray 
pump. Spraying at the proper time may mean 
all the difference between profit and loss. "In 
fourteen co-operative experiments, covering 180 
acres, made in 1904, in New York State, the 
average increase in yield of potatoes due to 
spraying was 62j bushels per acre, the cost of 
spraying was $4.98 per acre, the cost per acre 



XQS WAYS OF 

WORKING 

for each spraying, 93 cents, and the net profit 
per acre $24.86. Not only were the gains in 
yield due mainly to 'lengthening the time of 
growth by preventing foliage destruction by late 
blight,' but the sprayed potatoes being more ma- 
ture, were of better cooking quality." (U. S. 
Dept. of Agriculture, Bulletin 251, page 9 — 
1906). 

Stable and barnyard manure furnish heat as 
well as plant food; to get the maximum advan- 
tage of both it must be carefully treated and not 
allowed to waste itself on the desert air. Manu- 
factured f ertiUzers can be used to great advan- 
tage if used wisely, but before paying forty dol- 
lars a ton, one must know exactly what the ton 
is composed of, what to do with it, and what the 
results are to be, for learning all of which there 
are abundant facilities in the books. The beginner 
is safe on stable manure, but on very dangerous 
ground with these commercial fertilizers. It is 
wise for him to use manufactured fertilizer only 
to raise green crops to plow under, in order so 
to improve the land as not to need to use them 
again. The bill for them is sure to come in, but 



A LITTLE LAND I64, 

AND A LIVING 

a crop from them is not so sure to come out, al- 
though on early tomatoes, beets and cabbage and 
for high-priced crops they sometimes pay ten- 
fold their cost. 

Early vegetables pay best, and properly mixed 
manure heats the soil sufficiently to force them. 
But many gardeners now find it cheaper and 
more convenient to use hot water pipes, perma- 
nent or portable, to heat the soil. 

Irrigation is giving astounding results, not the 
least important of which is that it is cutting 
down the size of the farms from the conventional 
160 acres to a maximum of about 40 acres, run- 
ning down to five acres, besides aiding and forc- 
ing plants and improving quality. That is a 
study by itself, but we can avail ourselves of its 
principles in the use of the farm-house waste and 
any pond or stream we find. It is as stupid to 
waste water, and especially dirty water, as it is 
to waste manure. 

Ordinary farmers do not think it profitable to 
irrigate. A man who has push and the ability to 
handle a fine crop to advantage, finds it very 
profitable. 



165 WAYS OP 

WORKING 

B. F. Calvert, of Willows, California, reports 
$1200.00 from an acre irrigated with his iron 
gasoline engine: the highest, watermelons, giv- 
ing $300.00, down through strawberries, black- 
berries, Logan berries, tomatoes, to the lowest, 
cabbage, $100.00. The fuel costs only fifty 
cents a day. 

The simple method of surface irrigation is to 
lay out at some distance — at least 100 feet — 
from the house a small sewage farm where the 
sewage may flow over the surface and slowly 
sink into the ground, which should have suffi- 
cient slope, and the soil should be porous, not re- 
tentive. 

The liquid sewage, including kitchen and cham- 
ber slops, is conducted to this field in a water- 
tight drain and then allowed to flow into shallow 
trenches. To avoid the overloading of the soil 
with sewage at any one place, the main distrib- 
uting trench should be so arranged that it, and 
the irrigation trenches branching from it, may be 
temporarily blocked at any point to divert the 
sewage into one or more different trenches every 
day. In winter the warmth of the sewage will 



A LITTLE LAND Igg 

AND A LIVING 

keep it in motion and the filtration will go on 
although the field may be covered with snow and 
ice. 

The water from the roof may be used to ad- 
vantage along with the soap-suds and slops, in- 
stead of simply keeping dampness around the 
house. 

The simplest way to utilize kitchen slops is to 
pour them upon plants about the house in sum- 
mer, in winter upon the soil, each time in an- 
other spot, so as not to supersaturate the surface 
layers of soil in any one place. However, mar- 
ketable fruits and vegetables should not be care- 
lessly allowed to come in contact with fresh sew- 
age, nor should the irrigation field be near the 
well. 

The Waring system, best adapted for climates 
where there is little frost, is to conduct the 
sewage underground in pipes with open 
joints and with trenches: but this is somewhat 
costly. 

Here was an ingenious scheme for getting 
others to do his work — described by a writer in 
MaxwelVs Talisman: — 



167 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

" I put my new well on the higher side of the 
garden, with a large tub as a reservoir to get 
sun-warmed. The pump is near a road, and 
many people passed by daily. So I placed two 
cups and a notice on a box seat, which read, * If 
you want a nice, cool drink, please pump a little 
while.' We had many a laugh over the notice 
at the well. Troops of ladies and gentlemen 
passing would stop and read the notice, and 
then start pumping. It takes over 200 lifts of 
the handle to fill the tub, but it has been filled 
five, six and seven times in a day, and during 
the warm weather the pumping was all done for 
us. 

" The overflow of the tub went into the gar- 
den, and it saved me the expense of a windmill. 
The pump was well patronized, except on wet 
days. The bulk of this overflow went to the peas, 
beans, rose trees, black currant and some 500 
raspberry and blackberry bushes." 

Plenty of manure and then thorough cultiva- 
tion make an almost complete protection against 
ordinary droughts. It is clear that when the 
"dry farmer " raises bumper crops on twelve 



A LITTLE LAND Igg 

AND A LIVING 

inches annual rainfall, drought should have lit- 
tle terror for those who have forty to fifty inches 
per year. Always provided that we have no 
more land than we can treat thoroughly. 

If the soil is cultivated carefully and inten- 
sively, it will hold and store water underneath 
the growing crop. Finely pulverizing and pack- 
ing the seed-bed makes it retain most of the 
moisture that falls, just as a tumbler filled with 
fine sponge or bird-shot will retain much more 
water than one filled with buckshot. 

The air sucks up the moisture from the earth 
unless we prevent it by a soil blanket or " mulch " ; 
this also readily absorbs the dew and the showers. 
Water moves in the soil by capillary attraction 
as in a lamp wick; the more densely the soil is 
saturated the more easily it moves upward, as 
oil " climbs up " a wet wick faster than a dry 
one. Put some powdered sugar on a lump of cut 
sugar and put the cut sugar in water; the pow- 
dered sugar will remain dry even when the lump 
is so wet that it crumbles to pieces; this shows 
how a mulch helps to check evaporation. 

Grain and forage crops acclimated to dry con- 



169 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

ditions are being brought here from all parts of 
the world and are making lands productive which 
were formerly valueless.* 

Much will be done with other crops also by 
dry farming; that is by plowing the soil very 
deep and cultivating six or eight times a season, 
thus reducing evaporation to a minimum and 
retaining all the moisture for the crops. 

Thousands of acres in Montana grow good 
crops without irrigation. In Fergus County, 
for instance, the once incredible yield of 45 
bushels of wheat per acre is grown without irri- 
gation. Heavy crops of grain and vegetables 
are grown in the vicinity of Great Falls by dry 
farming. 

In the strictly arid regions there are many 
millions of acres, now considered worthless for 
agriculture, which are as certain to be settled in 
small farms as were the lands of Illinois. 

What irrigation has done for arid regions 
drainage will do for swampy, overflowed lands. 
According to the geological survey, there are 

* Macaroni wheat will yield fifteen bushels to the acre with ten 
inches of rainfall. This is two bushels more than the average 
wheat yield in the United States. 



A LITTLE LAND ji^q 

AND A LIVING 

60,000,000 acres of this sort of land now wait- 
ing reclamation. If half these swamps were 
drained it would increase the land values of the 
country by $300,000,000 and the crop values by 
more than $900,000,000; it would provide ten- 
acre farms for 3,000,000 families, thus putting 
about 15,000,000 people on lands now practically 
worthless. There is no doubt that the federal 
government will some day reclaim these lands as 
it already has the desert, so there is no real fear 
of the pressure of farm population in this 
country. 

The gardener, like manufacturers and mer- 
chants, must devise new ways of packing and 
selling. One of the latest is the " family bas- 
ket," devised by the FuUertons. 

A crate holding six three-quart baskets was 
selected. The three baskets in the bottom con- 
tained beets, newly dug potatoes (the kind you 
can eat boiled in the skin) and cabbage. A par- 
tition over these and the top three contained peas, 
lettuce and cucumbers in one box, young carrots 
and onions in the third box. (" The Lure of the 
Land," page 88.) 



171 WAYS OF 

WORKING 

This is attractive, but you will have to find 
a customer who will pay a fancy price for fancy 
goods, direct to you. It is apparently trivial 
things that do so much to increase profits : East- 
ern gardeners and farmers have much to learn 
yet about packing. 



CHAPTER VII 

MONEY AND TIME REQUIRED 

The Teacher of Fools — Success — Failure — " Think-box " 
Secrets — Large Capital Not Needed — Specialties as 
Money-makers — The Value of Money — Equipment — 
Outlay and Income — Five-acre Investment — Ten Acres 
Costly — Cost of Starting — Union Wages in Different 
Cities — Hand vs. Horse Cultivation — Crops Every 
Month — The Condition of the Farmer. 

MOST persons suppose that if their legs or 
their hands are not going, they are idhng. 
But after all, as Mr. Carnegie says, "The 
man that does the work, the hewer of wood 
and the drawer of water, never gets rich." 
If working could make one rich, every mule 
would be a Croesus. Take time to consider 
what you should do and how you should do 
it, and read Agricultural papers, Department 
year books, and especially the farmer's bul- 
letins. In our appendix is a selected list of 
those particularly adapted for the Intensive 
Agriculturist. 

173 



A LITTLE LAND I74 

AND A LIVING 

The charge of the prophet against Israel was 
not merely that the nation had sinned, but 
" Israel doth not know, my people do not con- 
sider." If the printing press had been invented 
in those days, he would have added, " neither wiU 
they read good books." 

Fools sneer at book-farming, but you need 
the best books by practical men. " Experience 
is a dear teacher, but a fool will learn of no 
other." A wise man learns by the experience of 
others. 

Some people can't help being successful with 
plants, but while they have this gift they may 
lack the ability to teach you how to do it. If 
you watch them closely you will see that they 
love their work; that they handle their plants as 
tenderly as you do your children, and study them 
as closely as children should be studied. 

Study the new methods of scientific, practical 
men, not the methods of ignorant yokels, who 
are still using the rack-rented hand-to-mouth 
methods that their grandfathers learned in Po- 
land or in Ireland. You will find that if you 
use your powers of observation you can do most 



175 MONEY AND 

TIME REQUIRED 

men's work better than they have been trained 
to do it. 

Did you ever notice how little people know 
of their own business? Hardly a clerk can do 
up a decent package, or even tie the string so 
that it won't slip. So don't be overawed by 
experience nor by success. Even the successful 
man might have done much better if he had used 
others' brains as well as his own. The trouble 
is that men do not use their brains. As Dan 
Beard says, " It hurts the head to think, — try it 
and see." 

To learn the rotation of crops and what things 
can be double cropped or companion cropped, 
what plants exhaust the soil and what restore it, 
and what weeds can be turned over for manure 
instead of being pulled up, and how deep to 
plow, is more work and counts for more than 
grubbing up stumps with a pick-axe. 

You can spend indefinite labor, or money 
either, on an acre ; your " think-box " must tell 
you how and where your labor and money can 
be most profitably spent and how to arrange 
so that the labor won't all need to be done at 



A LITTLE LAND I75 

AND A LIVING 

once. If you can't find that out, you will be 
like the " plain farmer," overworked and under- 
paid. 

It does not usually pay at present, however, 
to work an acre to its full capacity; it hardly 
ever pays if you have to hire your labor, except 
for the merely mechanical part such as plowing. 
If there is plenty of cheap labor at hand you can 
exploit that; if not, you had better exploit only 
the land. 

Large capital is not needed. Near every large 
city you will find market gardeners worth ten 
to fifty thousand dollars who started with little 
or no money. The uneducated Slavs, Hunga-= 
rians and Wallachians are taking up the eastern 
farms long since abandoned to the mort- 
gagees, and though they are not the most avail- 
able lands that intelligence can get, the farm° 
ers are getting rich by cultivating them inten- 
sively. 

A market garden is merely a big kitchen gar- 
den to supply the public as well as your family. 
For success or for profit, land near markets and 
transportation, manure, hot beds, crates, wagons 



177 MONEY AND 

TIME REQUIRED 

and tools are needed. You can raise vegetables 
in variety and quantity sufficient to justify giv- 
ing all your time to it. 

So farmers, tired of small profits and hard 
work, should get away from staple crops to 
specialties. They will need only a few addi- 
tional tools and fertilizers. A cash capital of 
$20 to $25 an acre would be enough for them, 
where a novice would need $80 to $100 an acre. 
A beginner in South Jersey on a five acre truck 
patch would need $500 to start and run till his 
sales of truck started. In Florida $95 an acre, 
in Texas $45, Illinois $70, around Norfolk, Vir- 
ginia, $75 to $125, and in Long Island $75 to 
$150 are needed for tools, seeds, fertilizers and 
appHances, including rent of land, but not in- 
cluding labor. 

Borrow the capital even if you pay high rates. 
It is a common superstition that money is worth 
only four or ^ve per cent., and that all over that 
is a premium on risk. But the banks that pay 
that rate manage to make much more on what 
they get. 

If you are making a thousand dollars out of 



A LITTLE LAND 178 

AND A LIVING 

an acre that costs $500 you can certainly afford 
to pay much more than $25 a year interest on 
its cost, for the money will bring you far larger 
return than that. 

You can work with only an axe, a plow and 
a spade, although a scythe and a sickle extra are 
handy, but to get the best results you need the 
best tools. Special work calls for special tools. 
They will pay for themselves many times a 
year. 

Aside from axe, saw, plane, hammer, etc. ; for 
market gardening, the following will be needed: 
1 team of horses, $200 (though these may be 
hired) ; wheel hoe, $6.00 — a wheel hoe saves back- 
ache — walking plow, $10.00; disc or cutaway 
harrow, $25.00; farm wagon, $50.00; cultivator 
(2 horse), $25.00; cultivator (1 horse), $8.00; 
wheelbarrow, $4.00; shovels, pick, matlock or 
grubbing hoe, $10.00; work harness for two 
horses, $25.00; spade and fork each $1.00; push 
hoe, 65 cents; watering can, 60 cents; rake and 
common hoe, $1.00; bulb-sprayer, 25 cents; 
trowel, 10 cents. A few good tools carefully se- 
lected and cared for are better than a number 



lyg MONEY AND 

TIME REQUIRED 

carelessly bought and then neglected. With 
proper care all these things, even the team, should 
be good for twenty years. 

A broomstick or a tool handle sharpened, will 
make a dibble. Garden lines, to insure straight 
rows; labels; tomato supports, plant protectors 
and stakes can be home made, and thus lessen ex- 
pense, but the following additional "boughten" 
tools will be useful : — 

Wheel-hoe with seeder, $8.50; roller, $8.00; 
sprayer, $3.75; crowbar, $1.50; weeder, 35 cents. 
You push a weeder backward and forward and it 
cuts both ways. It's best on soft ground; on 
hard, use a push hoe. A horse hoe will save time 
on many crops ; horse labor can be hired. 

In Northern Long Island, if you do your own 
work, the cash outlay on an acre which produces 
250 to 400 bushels of potatoes, usually selling for 
fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel, or from 
$125 to $300 an acre, is 

Seed Potatoes $10.00 

Commercial Fertilizer 13,00 

Spraying Against Blight, etc 4 . 00 

Total .$2T.OO 



A LITTLE LAND IgO 

AND A LIVING 

Hand labor, if you grow but one acre, might 
cost you $40, with wages at $1.35 to $1.50 per 
day. If you ship by rail to a consignee the selling 
charges would be forty to fifty dollars, leaving 
about thirty net profit. Where you do the work 
yourself, the labor cost, of course, goes to you as 
wages or additional profit. By thorough cultiva- 
tion and care you can probably get 600 bushels 
without any greater cash outlay. 

The cost of preparing an acre garden and the 
seeds for planting may be estimated as follows : 

Counting Five Dollars per day for man and team, and two 

acres as a day's work, plowing $2.50 

One harrowing, at rate of 10 acres a day 50 

Manuring, 5 loads at $1.00 each 5.00 

Seeds, one planting, mixed produce 4 . 00 

Total $12.00 

The cost of seed is not a big item, but if you 
have to buy plants, the expense will be much 
greater. Mrs. Helena R. Ely in "Another 
Hardy Garden" says that $10 or $12 will buy 
all the seeds (excepting potatoes) required for a 
vegetable garden large enough to supply a fam- 
ily of eight to ten persons. 



181 MONEY AND 

TIME REQUIRED 

Two men could handle an acre with occasional 
extra help. On new rich land it will take two to 
three years to get fairly established. Worn out 
land takes longer. Asparagus and rhubarb take 
two years and bush fruits three, to become prof- 
itable. So you should lease for not less than ten 
years, or better, buy. 

Give one acre to vegetables, one to small fruits, 
and one for buildings, poultry, cow and horse lot, 
etc. An active man should clear a thousand dol- 
lars a year, besides a good living, and be abso- 
lutely independent, unless he is located where 
some pirate can steal his profits. 

When the writer asserted some years ago that 
he had known some " amateur farmers " to make 
not farm wages, which are about eighteen dollars 
per month and board (U. S. Department of Ag- 
riculture) , but Trades Union wages, four dollars 
for every day of work, the judicious smiled, and 
the injudicious, including most of those who have 
failed in farming themselves, and even some agri- 
cultural editors, were tempted to scoff. 

They said: " If that be so, how is it that the 
regular farmers can hardly make even one end 



A LITTLE LAND 182 

AND A LIVING 

meet, let alone two?" The answer seems to be 
first, that most farmers are really speculating in 
land; that few farmers know much about farm- 
ing ; and, finally and principally, that the farmer 
is pushed out by the high speculative prices of 
land to places where he ought not to be, and be- 
ing, cannot succeed. 

It might well be that some of the cultivators 
themselves were too enthusiastic about the re- 
sults of their labors, but we will find that other 
facts cannot be explained if the returns were 
less than those stated. There is a story of an 
old Irish woman who was getting her mistress to 
write home for her. She dictated : " Oi get mate 
for me dinner onct a wake." " Why, Bridget," 
said the lady, "you get it every day." "Ah, yer 
leddyship, sure they'd never belave that at all, 
at all." That is like our four dollars — it was 
all of the truth that the public knew enough to 
believe. 

T. B. Galloway, Chief of the Bureau of Plant 
Industry at Washington, calculates that where 
SL man can sell his own crop of miscellaneous 
vegetables grown on five acres, his investment 



18S MONEY AND 

TIME REQUIRED 

will be five acres of land at $250, $1250 ; green- 
house, 20 X 100, $1200; hotbed, sash and mis- 
cellaneous equipment, $500. He figures that the 
gross income from such a plant should be from 
$2000 to $3000 a year, or $1500 to $2000 net. 

W. W. Rawson estimates that exclusive of the 
land and buildings it would cost $11,000 to equip 
ten acres for the highest intensive market garden- 
ing and require ten men in winter and twenty in 
summer, including three greenhouses 200 x 300. 
Therefore, don't invest in ten acres unless you 
have ample capital. 

Where labor is scarce it is important to know 
how much time is needed for the thorough cul- 
tivation of each acre. 

The Boston Report of the Industrial Aid So- 
ciety (October, 1895, p. 5, Supplement), gives 
the average time spent on one-third of an acre 
as "eight or nine full days, some not spending 
over six days from the time of planting to har- 
vesting inclusive." Call it nine, that is twenty- 
seven days per acre. 

The estimate of Mr. J. W. Kjelgaard, New 
York, is that with the first plowing done, with- 



A LITTLE LAND 184, 

AND A LIVING 

out the assistance of hotbeds, thorough culti- 
vation of an acre of good land, one-half of 
which is in potatoes, will employ a good worker 
for twenty- four days a year. 

Hon Seth Fenner, of East Aurora, New 
York, writes : " On a third of an acre of ground, 
plowing and fertilizing being furnished, half be- 
ing potatoes and having no hotbeds, from six to 
eight days should be ample for a good worker to 
perform all the needed labor from inception to 
finish." 

Mr. Joseph Morwitz writes : " Saturday after- 
noons and Sundays during the six months of 
work, or 39 days, ought to be just enough for 
one acre, if our test of 1901 on three acres Joint 
Account Patch were made the basis of calcula- 
tion. These three acres cost us 1120 hours or 
112 days of 10 hours, or 37 days per acre. Two 
crops per season. They were plowed, and I be- 
lieve, cultivated, by the teams of the Society. 
The gardeners only planted and harvested and 
helped out the cultivating to some extent." 

John G. Thompson, the fertilizer expert of 
Passaic, New Jersey, writes: "You wish an 



185 MONEY AND 

TIME REQUIRED 

estimate of the time taken digging and plant- 
ing. It will take an ordinary steady workman 
about four days to dig over and three days to 
plant a J acre lot (28 days to an acre). This 
means persistent effort and continuity of pur- 
pose. Many persons will spend from two to 
five times as long and in fact never get through. 
They lack patience or perseverance, or both." 

Mr. George T. Powell, the expert of the New 
York Committee on the State of Agriculture, 
says : " I think it will require thirty-seven days 
to cultivate an acre, one-half potatoes, and the 
balance in vegetables of an ordinary variety, in- 
cluding the gathering of crops. If the crops 
could be partly cultivated by horse power, the 
days would be reduced four or five in number. 
More labor is required on poor land without 
fertilizers." 

Mr. Daniel B. Safford, an experienced gentle- 
man farmer of White Plains, New York, figures 
it at thirty-five days for an acre. 

We are safe, then, in counting thirty-six days 
as the time needed for an ordinary able farmer 
to cultivate a full acre plot. 



A LITTLE LAND 186 

AND A LIVING 

In Long Island City, 'New York, 56 acres 
divided into 84 plots averaging two-thirds of 
an acre each, required altogether 2016 days' work 
or 24 days for each plot. The total product was 
worth $4900.00, which gives an average wage 
of $2.43 per day. In Brooklyn, where the Gar- 
dens were as nearly a failure as anywhere, the 
average was $1.52. In St. Louis, Boston, Buf- 
falo, Detroit, and Omaha the returns ran from 
$5.55 per day to 83 cents, or an average in the 
five cities of $2.70, and these places all started 
late and suffered greatly from drought.* 

You can thoroughly cultivate an acre in 140 
hours if you have a horse, or 250 hours by hand, 
say 14 or 25 days. At the South seeds can be 
planted every month; North from the first of 
March to August. Simple but complete tables 
are given in " Three Acres and Liberty " to have 
crops to sell every month. You can plant quick 
maturing crops and get almost immediate re- 
turns. 

* The average product per acre was as follows: New York 
(commercial fertilizer used), $87.50; Boston (commercal fer- 
tilizer used on only 14 acres), $130; Brooklyn, $55; Buffalo 
(very poor soil), $48; Detroit, $60; St. Louis claims $200. 



CHAPTER VIII 

GROWING UNDER GLASS 

Early Vegetables — A Sample Hot-bed — Heating by Fire — 
Cost and Returns — Flowers Better Than Vegetables — 
Greenhouses — Success. 

TO get early vegetables you need a hotbed. 
For it you want the best soil and the sun- 
niest spot possible. 

All hotbeds are right-angled boxes covered 
with movable glazed frames and heated. The 
bed may be of any size or shape but the stand- 
ard is six feet wide, since the stock glass frames 
are usually six feet long by three wide. The 
cheapest plan is to get some old planks, broken 
brickbat or stone, and piece together a box-like 
affair in proper shape, then lay on the sashes; 
the front should be at least ten inches above the 
ground and the rear fourteen inches, for drain- 
age. Make it face south or southwest and pro- 
tect it on the north. This will do to start with, 

187 



A LITTLE LAND 188 

AND A LIVING 

but will last only two or three seasons. Cement 
walls extending to the bottom of the manure 
are best. Bank them with earth or straw to 
keep out the cold, and have mats or shutters for 
extra cold weather. The best material to heat 
the bed and the most easily obtained is fresh 
horse manure in which there is a quantity of 
straw and litter. This will give a slow, moist 
heat and will not burn out before the plants 
mature. Get all the manure you need at one 
time. Pile it in a dry place and let it ferment; 
every few days, work the pile over thoroughly 
with a dung fork; sometimes two turnings of 
the manure are enough, but it is better to let it 
stand and heat three or four times. 

The soil should be equal parts of garden loam 
and well-rotted barnyard manure; tramp well 
the first layer of three inches ; to make it entirely 
safe for the seeds add another layer of the same 
depth. Use no water with garden loa^m and 
manure if you can help it. 

Before sowing the seeds, put a thermometer 
three inches deep in the soil of the bed. If it 
runs over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, do not sow. If 



189 GROWING 

UNDER GLASS 

below 55 degrees it is too cold ; you will have to 
fork it over and add more manure. If the bed 
gets to hot, you can ventilate it by making holes 
with a sharp stick. 

Another way to make a hotbed is with fire. 
On a large scale this is cheaper than manure. 
Start six feet from the east end of your hotbed 
and dig two trenches to about four feet west of 
the hotbed. Give them a slight taper to create 
a draught, and arch with vitrified tile, laying 
two bricks on each side, lengthwise, a little bevel- 
ing, and one brick crosswise to complete the 
arch, and cover with dirt that was dug out of the 
trenches; to these the flue from a small stove 
supplies the heat. Unless you can get waste 
exhaust steam, steam heat is only economical in 
large houses. The care and expense do not pay 
except where the business is on a large scale. 

There are ninety-five million square feet of 
glass in the United States devoted to vegetables, 
of which more than thirteen million feet are in 
New York State. Under favorable conditions, 
glass devoted to this work will earn an average 
of fifty cents per year per square foot. 



A LITTLE LAND I90 

AND A LIVING 

The cost per sash is at least four dollars, or 
about sixteen dollars per frame, made up as fol- 
lows: A well-mortised sash frame (4 sashes), 
$4 to $5; sashes unglazed, $1 each; glazing, 75 
cents per sash; mats and shutters from 50 cents 
to $1 per sash, depending upon the material. 
These prices vary greatly, however. 

An estimate for a one-acre garden to grow a 
general line of vegetables where half the acre 
is to be set with plants from hotbeds, is as fol- 
lows: One-eighth acre of early cauliflower and 
cabbage, about 2000 plants, would require two 
6x12 frames of four sashes each, allowing nearly 
250 plants to each sash. These frames may be 
used again with 450 tomato plants, for the same 
area, about 55 plants to the sash. 

Another frame would be needed at the same 
time, say for egg-plants and peppers, two sashes 
of each, growing fifty transplanted plants under 
each sash. 

Two frames will be needed for cucumbers, 
melons, and early squashes; for extra early let- 
tuce count sixty or seventy heads to a sash. 
Celery and late cabbages are to be started in 



igi GROWING 

UNDER GLASS 

seed-beds in the open. If spinach is grown in 
frames, the sash used for one of the late crops 
of endive, escarole, celeriac, and other October 
plantings, may be used through the following 
winter. 

This makes five frames altogether, the cost 
from one to five dollars, according to make and 
material; twenty sashes and covers at say $2.75, 
^55; manure at market price, counting at least 
three to four loads per frame. This is a liberal 
estimate of space, and allows for all ordinary 
loss of plants, and for discarding poor ones. 
Most, or all of the plants, are to be transplanted 
once or more in the frames. Many gardeners 
have less glass. 

Flowers pay better under glass than vege- 
tables. A plant of carnations brings much more 
than a head of lettuce and suffers less from the 
competition of southern crops. But vegetables 
can be raised in houses that are too poor for 
flowers. Lettuce and tomatoes are the principal 
crops in amount and in profits. The greenhouse 
is also used for forcing plants which are after- 
wards transplanted to the open air. This de- 



A LITTLE LAND I92 

AND A LIVING 

velops them before they could grow outdoors, 
so that they are very early on the market, there- 
by realizing the highest prices. 

That a small heated greenhouse is far better, 
and in the long run cheaper, than the manure 
heated hotbed, is the conclusion of many prac- 
tical gardeners. The novice, however, will need 
to go slow in its use until he learns by experi- 
ence. Greenhouses, like hotbeds, are expensive, 
varying according to size and materials used, but 
the increased returns from them justify their 
cost. 

Small greenhouses, say 12 x 9 x 8 feet, with 
double walls, double-thick glass, plant tables, 
etc., are built in sections ready for putting to- 
gether. They may be bought for from $80.00 
to $115,000, and will more than repay the out- 
lay, as the income is from 25 to 50 cents for 
every square foot of bench room, the prices, com- 
pared to those for open air products, being as 
five to one. 

Nearness to market is most important. In 
large cities the chief fertilizer, manure, can be 
had for the hauling. The short haul is impor- 



193 GROWING 

UNDER GLASS 

tant, and above all, the gardener who is near 
the market can take advantage of high prices. If 
near enough to make two or three trips a day 
when prices are high, so much the better. 



CHAPTER IX 

ANIMALS FOR PROFIT 

Animals on the Farm — A Snail Park — Frogs — Turtles — 
Bass — Pheasants — Dogs — Cats — Silver Foxes — Ex- 
penses and Receipts— The Busy Bee. 

EVERY farm has its quota of animals for 
profit or for pets. Of recent years even 
pets are made profitable; there is a good living 
in rearing animals, preferably uncommon ones. 
This has opened opportunities to those who have 
land and yet are not able to carry on farming or 
even gardening. 

Although the snail industry is practically un- 
known in this country, it has been in vogue since 
the days of Caesar, and flourishes now in Bur- 
gundy, France. Any plot of damp, limy soil 
can be made into a snail park by enclosing it 
with smooth, tar-coated boards to prevent the 
snails crawling out. The boards must penetrate 
the ground for a depth of eight inches at least, 
and have a ledge or shelf at the ground level, 
so that the snails may not burrow under them. 

195 



A LITTLE LAND I96 

AND A LIVING 

Strong stakes are driven outside the boards to 
prevent the wind blowing them over. A plot 
of ground 100 x 200 feet will serve for about 
ten thousand snails. The soil is plowed deeply 
in the Spring; the snails are then put in and 
covered with several inches of moss or straw, 
which is kept damp. As they eat only at night, 
their food, — lettuce, cabbage, vine leaves, or 
grass, — must be supplied daily about sunset. To 
improve the flavor of snails, mint, parsley, and 
other aromatic herbs are planted in their enclo- 
sure. The snail lays from fifty to sixty eggs in 
a year. Her nest is a smooth hole in the ground, 
where the eggs hatch in less than 20 days. The 
game is marketable when six or eight weeks old. 
They are ready for picking in October after 
they have sealed themselves up in their shells; 
they are then put on trays and kept in store- 
house for several months, when they are brushed 
and cooked in salted water. They are shipped 
to market at once in wooden boxes holding from 
50 to 200 each, and bring high prices as an epi- 
curean delicacy. 

Frog culture is successful only when the pond 
is large enough to be partitioned, thus separating 



197 ANIMALS 

FOR PROFIT 

the young from the old. The frog is a cannibal 
and will eat tadpoles and even the larva. The 
chief difficulty in raising frogs is to find the 
proper food for them, unless insects are abund- 
ant. There are many frog ranches near San 
Francisco and some do a thriving business, but 
as a general rule, commercial success has not 
attended the enterprise in this country. 

Young diamond-backed turtles are cheap, 
while the full grown are enormously expensive, 
and the demand for them is constantly increas- 
ing. It is possible that purchasing young ones 
and maturing them would open a new line of 
profit. Common box tortoise and snapping tur- 
tles are raised for canning, and often take the 
place of the more expensive diamond-back. 

Although fish culture is little known in this 
country except under Government auspices, yet 
carp, black bass, and trout are raised where con- 
ditions are favorable. It is comparatively easy 
to cultivate carp, although the industry has never 
attained such proportions here as in Europe. 
A pond with a mud or loam soil, and water of the 
same depth all the year, is all that is needed. 
In stocking a pond three females are allowed for 



A LITTLE LAND > igg 

AND A LIVING 

two males. They spawn in the Spring, laying 
a large number of eggs, but only 800 to 1000 
to each spawner prove fertile. Carp live to a 
great age and often weigh from 30 to 40 pounds. 
Black bass give good returns. The small 
mouthed variety require a pond six feet deep in 
the middle and not less than two feet at the 
edge, with a sandy bottom and many water 
plants; 100 x 100 feet is a good sized breeding 
pond. As the bass needs a barrier behind which 
to spawn, artificial rectangular shaped nest 
frames are provided, two adjoining sides being 
16 inches high, the other two four inches high. 
To keep the water in healthful condition the 
pond must be fed by a flowing brook protected 
from freshet disturbances. Bass feed upon min- 
nows and in their absence must be supplied with 
fresh liver cut in threads like angle worms. Even 
then they must have minnows from September 
until they go into Winter quarters. Raising 
young bass or fingerlings to stock rivers and 
ponds is a profitable enterprise- 
Trout are more difficult to raisfe, as cold run- 
ning water and unremitting care are necessar} 



igg ANIMALS 

FOR PROFIT 

Although with pheasants, hke all birds of the 
turkey family, the more ground they have to 
range in the less are they liable to disease, yet 
with proper care they can be raised on the home 
acre. We find authenticated cases where as 
many as sixty pheasants were kept in a house 
10 X 50 feet with five yards averaging 10 x 25. 

The chief difficulty in raising them is securing 
their food, such as flies, maggots, and ant-eggs. 
They also require green food like lettuce, cab- 
bage, turnip tops, etc. The pheasantry should 
be placed on high, well-drained land with a south- 
ern exposure, and must be thoroughly protected 
from cats, dogs, and other small animals. 
Pheasants bring fancy prices and the supply 
does not begin to keep pace with the demand. 

So much has been written about the raising of 
chickens that little remains to be said. 

We do not propose to hatch out another arti- 
cle on the exhausted chicken subject. It is 
necessary to take with large allowance the articles 
in the poultry journals, as well as the Ananias 
stories on this and other subjects in certain highly 
illustrated "farm" journals. 



A LITTLE LAND 
AND A LIVING 



200 



It is easy to figure out a profit in anything — 
on paper — ^and this is the way chickens figure 
out on paper: 



Lot Date 



A Jan.l, '07 


1 cock, 20 hens, will on Jan. 
22, 1907 hatch 100 cocks, 
100 hens. To preserve the 
Mormon proportion — sell 95 
cocks. Begin with 

Hatch, etc. (B) Jan. 22, '07 

" (C) July 22, '07 

♦* " (D) Jan. 22, '08 

" (E) July 22, '08 

" (F) Oct. 22, '07 
" (G) Apr, 22, '08 
" (H) Oct. 22, '08 

« (I) Mch. 22, '08 
" (J) Sept. 22, '08 

« (K) Oct. 22, '08 

" (L) July 22, '08 

" (M) Dec, '08.. 


Sold 
C 


Kept 
C 


H 






1 


2(i 


A July, '07 
A Jan., '08 
A July, '08 


H 

95 
95 
95 
95 

475 
475 
475 

475 
475 

475 


ATCHE 
5 
5 

5 
5 

25 

25 
2^ 

25 
25 

25 


D 

100 
100 
100 
100 


B Oct., '07 
B Apr., '08 
B Oct., '08 


500 
500 
500 


C Mch., '08 
C Sept., '08 


500 
500 


D Oct., '08 


500 


E not matur. 


2375 


125 


2500 


F July, '08 




G not matur. 




H not matur. 




I Dec, '08 


2375 


125 


2500 


K not matur. 




L not matur. 




M not matur. 




J not matur. 


7980 


421 


8420 



201 ANIMALS 

FOR PROFIT 

Raising fancy chickens looks attractive, but 
it requires much experience to get the goods 
and much reputation to sell them; the risks are 
also great, so that unless one loves to fuss with 
fancy poultry it is not an encouraging field. 

But to raise chickens of the ordinary variety, 
good for laying and for table use, much less 
fussing is necessary. A 200-egg incubator is 
filled twice in a season with fresh eggs, gathered 
from neighboring farms and henneries. Eggs 
laid the very day of collection are preferred, 
for those a week old are quite apt to be infertile. 
Practically all of those eggs will hatch and pro- 
duce vigorous birds which will begin to lay early. 
No eiFort is made to secure any particular variety 
and only the most active and healthy are re- 
served for winter laying. Over-breeding has 
produced so many disabilities in fowls as in other 
animals that wise egg producers are now experi- 
menting with cross-breeds. So far the plan has 
proven most successful. 

Even a few chickens can be made to pay on 
a farm, particularly where the food is raised 
for them, so that nothing extra has to be bought : 



A LITTLE LAND .202 

AND A LIVING 

the meat scraps from the table, the corn, cabbage, 
and other green things, wheat, oats and what- 
ever food is used, will not be felt as an addi- 
tional expense and the returns are therefore clear 
profit. A flock of 25 fowls, if properly housed 
and fed, will give eggs and chickens enough to 
add materially to the farmer's income. 

There is more money in eggs than there is 
in chickens. Eggs out of season, like everything 
else out of season, bring high prices, and it is 
possible to nourish and even deceive the chicken 
into laying at unseasonable times. I do not know 
how good that is for the morals of the chickens, 
but it is good for our finances. 

Intelligence alone will bring profits, and un- 
less intelligence be reinforced by a careful study 
of the many valuable reference books and au- 
thorities, it will not secure large returns. 

There is more profit in ducks than in hens, 
now that we know that they can be raised with- 
out swimming places. Ducks that are wholly 
land-raised have fewer feathers and more flesh, 
less oil and a finer flavor, and the demand for 
ducks as food has increased proportionately. 



203 ANIMALS 

FOR PROFIT 

White pekins are the most popular breed be- 
cause of their size and white meat; and more- 
over, they are splendid layers. They lay from 
100 to 165 eggs a season and the ducklings are 
easy to raise. 

Geese are another source of profit arid like 
ducks can be successfully raised without water. 
The feathers of both are valuable, although 
goose feathers bring the higher price. In the 
autumn, pure white goose feathers, dry and in 
good condition, are worth about 60 cents a 
pound; gray goose and white duck, 40 cents each; 
gray duck 32 cents. Scalded stock brings from 
3 to 5 cents a pound less. The small feathers 
are shipped in burlap or cotton sacks and, to 
avoid mildew, should be perfectly dry when 
packed. 

Squab-raising is a lucrative business, but the 
returns are often exaggerated. Although 
pigeons naturally breed ten or eleven times a 
year, every egg will not hatch a big squab for 
the market. The inexperienced beginner, if he 
start with well mated pure Homer stock, maj^ 
with good management and close attention, clear 



A LITTLE LAND g04, 

AND A LIVING 

$2.00 a year on each pair of birds; but that is 
not likely. 

Attention is turning to the " poor man's cow '* 
as goats are called. The U. S. Experiment Sta- 
tion in Connecticut imported a herd of 50 Malta 
goats, which is the best breed of milch goats, for 
experiment. The goat is almost immune from 
tuberculosis, which makes its milk most whole- 
some. It is easily and cheaply fed, ten goats 
costing no more to keep than one cow. A good 
milker will give from 2 to 3 quarts a day and 
a child can give all the care needed. The does 
cost from $5 to $8 each when full grown; a 
young one from $1 to $3. 

A further profit can be made from goats' hair, 
which is extensively used in the manufacture of 
so-called " camel's hair " goods. The best breed 
of goats for this purpose is the Angora, whose 
long, silky hair is much in demand for making 
the best grades of plush, silk dress goods, thread, 
etc. From three to five pounds of soft, silky hair 
is sheared from each goat annually, and the mar- 
ket price ranges from $2.50 to $7.00 a pound. 
Angora goats are not good eating, but they are 



205 ANIMALS 

FOR PROFIT 

splendid milkers ; both butter and cheese are made 
from their milk. They are good breeders too, 
and cost but little to keep, although they need 
a herder and require shelter at night. The aver- 
age price for a pair of Angora goats is $7.50; 
the male $5.00 and the female $2.50. A man 
who took up government irrigated land in Si- 
rocco County, California, put nearly all his sur- 
plus cash, $100, into Angora goats, and soon 
owned all his land, built a house and started a 
bank account which is steadily increasing. 

Swiss goats also are money makers. George 
L. Cook, of Winnetka, 111., had a buck and six- 
teen does selected for him in the Saanen valley 
and brought to this country. It has proved a 
paying investment. Each doe gives from four 
to six quarts of milk a day, and the cost of 
keeping is very small. It is possible to build up 
a good trade in goats' milk in big cities, as it 
resembles mother's milk more closely than cow's 
milk does, and is better for babies. In Swit- 
zerland peasants drive the goats to the doors of 
their customers before milking them. 

Of course goats are a venture, but they are 



A LITTLE LAND 206 

AND A LIVING 

probably a better venture than cattle, especially 
if you get into the business before everj^one else 
is in the race. 

Dog breeding is not a new occupation, but 
many persons make money by it. It does not 
require much land or capital and there is al- 
ways a profitable market, particularly for fancy 
lap-dogs, like the King Charles spaniel. To 
make profit on the breeding of retrievers or any 
sort of hunting dogs, kennels should be located 
in a game country and the puppies trained by 
a practical hunter. 

Breeding cats is a newer and better paj^ng 
venture than dogs. The purchasers are women 
who will pay any price for a cat that strikes 
their fancy, and as fashions in cats change fre- 
quently, there is always a demand. Parti-col- 
ored cats are just now in vogue, the favorites 
being Persian, tortoise-shell, and coon, but any 
oddity like the tailless !Manx cat, or the tynx 
cats will find a ready market. 

At Dover, Elaine, there are two fox ranches 
where from twenty to forty silver foxes are 
raised each year on less than an acre of land. 



207 ANIMALS 

FOR PROFIT 

They are not expensive to breed, as their food 
is chiefly sour milk and cornmeal or flour made 
into a small loaf, with a little meat once a week. 
They are clean animals and with careful atten- 
tion are free from disease. They breed as well 
in captivity as in their wild state, six or seven 
being the average litter, and any man who has 
made a success of raising hens can succeed with 
foxes, which require no more space or care and 
are worth twenty times as much. Fine silver 
fox furs are worth $150 a pelt. A cold climate 
is needed. 

A fox ranch should have a No. 16 galvanized 
wire fence, ten feet high with an overhang of 18 
inches to keep the foxes from escaping. Stakes 
must be driven close to the fence to prevent 
burrowing. This and the purchase of stock com- 
prise the whole expense for starting in a busi- 
ness whose gross receipts may mean from $3000 
to $6000 a year on a score or two of animals. 

But an easier business that is fast becoming 
popular is bee-keeping. More than the average 
hving is made in raising honey bees, by careful 
and intelligent study. Any farming, gardening, 



A LITTLE LAND 208 

AND A LIVING 

fruit raising, or wild brush land will suit bees. 
Indeed, in Cincinnati and in Philadelphia, there 
are large colonies of bees kept on the roofs of 
houses in the busiest parts of those cities. 

It is possible to begin with one hive, adding to 
it as circumstances permit. Even in a city one 
hive will yield 50 pounds of honey in a season, 
while under more favorable conditions from two 
to four times as much can be had. 

The work should be taken up systematically 
and the would-be apiarist should take the best 
bee journals. 

Bee-keeping has proved a very profitable ven- 
ture to Mr. Stoughton Cooley of Maywood, Illi- 
nois. He started with four hives which yielded 
400 lbs. of honey the first season, and at the end 
of four years they had increased so that his honey 
yield was 2700 pounds. 

Mr. Cooley writes : " I worked at bee-keeping 
faithfully and thoughtfully and was particu- 
larly fortunate in small winter losses — one of the 
handicaps of the business. On the other hand, 
the foul brood, the worst of all evils to the bee- 
keeper, broke out among my bees and practically 



209 ANIMALS 

FOR PROFIT 

wiped out one season's profits; but I succeeded 
in stamping it out. I am well satisfied from my 
experience that I could attend to a hundred colo- 
nies (and I am lame), clearing from $500 to 
$1000 a season. After all, it comes to this, suc- 
cess in any line is for the few who will apply 
themselves faithfully." 

Dr. C. C. Miller of Marengo, 111., who is re- 
garded as the American authority on bees, has 
harvested 18,150 lbs. of honey from 124 colo- 
nies. However, his warning is that the man 
whose sole aim is the accumulation of wealth 
would better let bees alone; but all bee-keepers 
agree that health, pleasure and a comfortable 
living are found in intelligently raising honey- 
bees. 

Profit in animal raising, like profit in all other 
lines of business, depends largely upon the time 
and attention given to it and the willingness of 
the worker to study, to observe and to profit by 
experience. 



CHAPTER X 

FRUIT GROWING 

American Supremacy — Development — Improvement — 
Apples, quality, thinning — Peaches — Chances of Suc- 
cess — Protecting Grapes — Pears — Plums — Quinces 
— Cherries — Persimmons — Small Fruit — Extra 
Culture — Strawberries — Bush Fruit — Exceptional 
Returns. 

FRUIT growing is rapidly increasing. The 
general climate of the United States is more 
favorable than that of Europe. Much American 
fruit is now exported because our fruit is more 
uniform and better than the European. Large 
quantities of apples go to England and Ger- 
many and we may look forward to an increasing 
trade in pears and other fruits. 

In the last few years plantations of all sorts, 
orchards, gardens and nurseries, have increased 

wonderfully, from the extreme north to the 

211 



A LITTLE LAND 212 

AND A LIVING 

south. But this does not necessarily imply im- 
provement in quality. In the best fruit growing 
counties of New York more than three-fourths 
of the fruit plantations consist of very ordinary 
apple orchards. Few high grade pears, plums, 
cherries, apricots, grapes, or bush fruit have yet 
been produced. Cold weather in the spring tends 
to make conditions harder in New York than in 
the middle sections. 

There is no profit in apple growing under av- 
erage conditions and ordinary management, yet 
apples are the most popular orcharding fruit. 

It costs only about ten per cent, more, mostly 
labor, to raise good fruit than poor, but it costs 
fifty per cent, more brains and brings a hundred 
per cent, more profit. 

Prof. Samuel Maynard says we must make 
the trees grow vigorously, whether upon poor or 
good soil, as the first requirement. To get the 
finest fruit, we need a strong, deep, moist soil; 
good grass land well underdrained is best. An 
elevation with a northern or western exposure is 
better than a southern or eastern one. On land 
that is free from stones and not too steep, thor- 



213 FRUIT 

GROWING 

ough and frequent cultivation will give the quick- 
est and largest returns. On such land hoed gar- 
den or farm crops may be profitable while the 
trees are small, but after five or six years it will 
generally be found best to cultivate it entirely 
for the trees. Organic matter in the form of 
stable manure or clover-crops must be applied 
in the Fall or very early in the Spring to keep 
up the supply of humus in the soil. Good fruit 
crops may be raised on land too stony for other 
agricultural uses, if the soil about the young trees 
be well worked and the moisture retained by 
means of mulch. Grafting is so successfully 
done now that fruit trees may be made profitable 
early instead of waiting six or seven years for 
maturity. Windfalls, no matter how hard, can 
be made into sauce, jellies or pies, and thus fur- 
nish a return even before the fruit is ripe. 

The new intensive methods are now applied 
to fruit growing. One of the most satisfactory 
of these methods is thinning. 

In the Massachusetts Hatch Station experi- 
ment in thinning, Gravenstein and Tetofsky 
apple trees were chosen, only one of each being 



A LITTLE LAND 214 

AND A LIVING 

thinned and one of each left unthinned as a 
cheek. In the Gravensteins the yield on the 
thinned and unthinned trees respectively, was, 
first quality fruit, 9 bushels and 2 J bushels; sec- 
ond quality, 1 bushel, 2 J bushels; windfalls, 9 J 
bushels, lOj bushels. In the Tetofskys the 
thinned trees gave 1 bushel windfalls, the un- 
thinned 3 bushels ; each tree gave a half bushel of 
second quality fruit, while of first quality the 
thinned tree yielded 2 bushels, and the unthinned 
tree none at all. First quality fruit brings 60 
cents per bushel, second quality only 25 cents, so 
that the thinning more than doubled the value 
of the Gravenstein yield and increased that of the 
Tetofsky eleven times.* 

Similar results were obtained with plums and 
in other places with peaches and X3ears and even 
with currants. 

The advantages of thinning are that it in- 
creases the size and color, and gives a better fla- 
vor; it also increases the quantity of No. 1 fruit, 
lessens the windfalls, etc., and sometimes in- 

* Such benefits did not show in every case, probably because of 
inexperience. 



215 



FRUIT 
GROWING 



creases the total yield. It tends to check injuri- 
ous insects and to prevent the spread of disease. 
Systematic thinning overcomes the tendency of 
fruit trees to alternate " apple years " and poor 
crops. It helps to establish a medium yield which 
averages more than the alternate abundance and 
scarcity both in quantity and in profit to the 
grower. 

The peach crop is next in importance to the 
apple crop, and location is the chief considera- 
tion in planting an orchard. The orchards giv- 
ing the largest returns are in Connecticut, Dela- 
ware, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and 
Georgia. For large crops it is well to choose 
land near large bodies of water as the tempera- 
ture of the water prevents too early budding, and 
also delays killing frosts. While sandy, porous 
soil is best, peaches may be successfully raised in 
clay soil if plenty of humus be provided. 

Some peach orchards are very profitable. Mr. 
Cornelius P. Swain, of Bridgeville, Del., says 
he picked 1100 baskets of Elberta peaches from 
208 trees growing on about two acres, and sold 
this fruit for cash at the Bridgeville Station for 



A LITTLE LAND 2l6 

AND A LIVING 

$1140. His orchard has had excellent tillage, is 
now eight years old, contains 500 trees, and has 
borne five crops, all of which have been profitable. 
The first paid $500, the second $850, the third 
$1000, the fourth $1200, and the fifth $1500. 

Mr. Swain's orchard has had the best of atten- 
tion, peas have been grown in it for the canning 
factory and cow peas and crimson clover for 
turning under, insuring good cultivation. The 
crops other than peaches have paid all the ex- 
penses of growing and tilhng the orchard since it 
was planted. 

Willis T. Mann, of Niagara Co., N. Y., says 
there is no branch of fruit growing in that sec- 
tion of country that is so much of a gamble as 
peach growing. The uncertainties of produc- 
tion, the very perishable character of the fruit 
and possible " gluts " in the market all tend to 
make the income uncertain, and it may vary from 
nothing to one thousand dollars per acre, after 
paying transportation charges and commis- 
sions. 

Mr. Mann has sold a crop at five cents per 
pound and realized $900 per acre. A friend of 



217 FRUIT 

GROWING 

his having a thirty acre orchard realized a few 
years ago $18,000 for the crop, $600 an acre. 
These, however, are possible, rather than prob- 
able results. Half these figures would still be 
considered high, and $250 or $300 per acre would 
generally be above rather than below the average. 
There has been a great increase in peach raising 
during recent years, and the fruit is now pro- 
duced in large quantities where it was formerly 
thought impossible. During the past decade the 
number of bearing trees in the United States in- 
creased from 53,000,000 to more than 99,000,000, 
and the increase continues. The result is that our 
markets are often congested, and it is difficult to 
get satisfactory prices. Still, if the fruit raised 
is all choice, it will prove a very profitable end of 
the business. Land suitable for peach growing 
can be bought for $75 to $100 per acre in New 
York, and $25 more should procure the trees and 
plant them, thus making the initial cost $100 to 
$125 an acre. Five years of care, two or three of 
which should be self-supporting by the produc- 
tion of other crops on the land, would bring the 
orchard into bearing condition, and two or three 



A LITTLE LAND 218 

AND A LIVING 

years more would bring it to its highest value. It 
is difficult to state what the value of the orchard 
really is, because it depends more upon the man 
than upon any other factor. Two or three years 
of neglect will ruin the best orchard. Certainly 
the real value of the orchard would be greatly in 
excess of the cost of production. 

At the Massachusetts and Colorado State Ex- 
periment Stations a new method of protecting 
peach trees has been successfully tried. This 
consists of laying the trees down in the Fall as 
soon as they have shed their leaves and the wood 
is well ripened. The earth is removed from 
around each tree in a circle about four feet in 
diameter, and the hollows are saturated with 
water and the trees are worked back and forth 
until loosened. They are then bent in the di- 
rection that offers least resistance until they lie 
on the ground. 

The ground should be allowed to dry enough 
to handle easily before any further work is done; 
then the hole is filled in, the limbs of the trees are 
tied together and covered with burlap held in 
place with earth. A light layer of earth is then 



210 FRUIT 

GROWING 

spread over the tree, affording ample protection 
to the tender buds. 

Care must be taken that the covering is not so 
warm as to force the buds prematurely. In some 
comparative tests it was found that while in un- 
protected trees about 50 per cent, of buds were 
killed, only 10 per cent, of the buds of protected 
trees were destroyed. When they begin to open, 
the covering is loosened to admit light and air, 
but should not be removed except by slow 
degrees. 

The trees are raised in the same way that they 
were laid down, softening the soil with water. In 
Colorado the trees are raised about the middle of 
May; in the East the season must determine the 
raising. Trees so treated will not stand unsup- 
ported, but are usually propped up at an angle, 
with two props to keep the wind from swaying 
them. 

When this treatment is begun while the tree is 
young and persisted in each year, there is little 
or no injury to the root system, but it is not wise 
to try it on old trees. Indeed many practical 
farmers say that very few growers could use this 



A LITTLE LAND ggO 

AND A LIVING 

method successfully even on young trees, and 
that it would, generally speaking, be unwise to 
attempt it. 

Professor Waugh of the Massachusetts Ex- 
periment Station has done some important work 
on dwarf fruit trees; the "Miniature Fruit 
Garden " gives increasing promise, not only for 
its better resistance to frost and later bud open- 
ing, but for the beauty and convenience of these 
cut-back pigmy trees. 

Fruits are second only to flowers in beauty and 
variety. We have miniature orange trees for 
decoration, why not baby apples and cherries 
also? Surely, too, a bouquet of fruit would af- 
ford as much scope for taste as one of " weeds." 
Poetry clings about the tree: if the poet clings, 
the profit might do it too. Think of the romance 
as well as the money in grapes. 

No farm is complete without a grape-vine, 
though only fruit enough for the family be 
grown. The vine can be planted near the house 
so as not to interfere with crops, and at little 
expense an arbor can be built. This will provide 
a cool, shady retreat in hot weather. Grapes 



221 FRUIT 

GROWING 

form a delightful table fruit and can be made 
into delicious and lucrative jams and jellies for 
winter use; there is little grape jelly now on 
the market. 

At Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New York, 
in " the Grape Belt " of this State, there is a col- 
ony of wine growing Italians holding title to 
1758 acres of land and conducting a thriving 
business. There are four hundred families or 
about 2000 persons, and they have increased 
the value of the land in that section from $35 to 
$150 per acre. A large proportion of them own 
their own farms and are not therefore paying 
tribute to landlords. Frugality, thrift, and per- 
sistent, faithful attention have made their vine- 
yards profitable to an extent unknown elsewhere 
in this country. The fresh grapes bring from 
$20 to $30 a ton, the wine from a ton of grapes 
fetches from $30 to $36. The cost of production 
runs from $8 to $10 per acre, and an acre pro- 
duces three tons of grapes annually after the 
first three years, so that the grower has an aver- 
age profit of $75 per acre. 

These farms and vineyards have done much to 



A LITTLE LAND 222 

AND A LIVING 

relieve the congested Italian quarters in Buffalo 
and other interior cities, and may well prove a 
satisfactory solution of the Italian problem of 
ISlew York city, when further extended. The 
Italian will only work in a gang. He is too civil- 
ized to go out by himself among strangers. But 
when settled in groups with their families, Ital- 
ians succeed famously as farmers. 

The plum, the pear and the quince may be 
made profitable under conditions like those for 
peaches, and recently cherries have come into 
prominence, although a more precarious crop 
than any of the others. Care must be exercised 
in choosing a site for the cherry orchard, high 
ground and free circulation of air being neces- 
sary. Because of poor packing. Eastern cherry 
growers have suffered from competition with 
California growers, who have reduced packing 
to a science, although Eastern cherries have a 
better flavor. 

The persimmon is another fruit not generally 
grown ; in fact the native variety was little known 
until the Japanese persimmon was introduced. 
Some of the native wild varieties are of excep- 



223 FRUIT 

GROWING 

tionally fine quality, and careful selection and 
grafting can make it the equal, if not the supe- 
rior, of its Japanese relative. 

A persimmon will ripen wherever peaches 
thrive well, although they do best in Southern 
States. They are usually picked and sold before 
fully ripened, and few consumers know just how 
delicious the ripe fruit is. A market for them 
could be created in any large city. Like fresh 
figs, the damage in transit makes them scarce in 
the Eastern market. Let someone learn how to 
pack them. Figs preserved in glass bring excel- 
lent prices. 

In the "Small Fruit Culturist" Andrew S. 
Fuller says, " The cultivating of small fruit as 
a distinct feature in horticulture commenced 
less than twenty-five years ago. We may well 
feel proud of the progress we have made in small 
fruit culture, but the limits have not been reached, 
and for those who may wish to enter this field, 
there is many an unsolved problem to work out. 

"With a constantly increasing demand, and 
no apparent prospect of our market being fully 
supplied, many have turned their attention to the 



A LITTLE LAND 224» 

AND A LIVING 

cultivation of small fruit. It offers as wide and 
safe a field as any other branch of business except 
natural monopolies. In many instances with an 
annual expenditure of twenty-five dollars per 
acre, a return of only one hundred dollars is ob- 
tainable, while upon the same soil and with the 
same variety, if fifty dollars had been expended, 
the return would have been three or four hun- 
dred dollars. All experiments show that extra 
culture is far more profitable than what is 
generally termed good culture. Many fruit 
growers, for the purpose of extending their busi- 
ness, increase the number of acres, when, if they 
would double the depth of those which they 
already possess, they would obtain the same in- 
crease in product without the expense of more 
land, and the extra travel and travail of cultivat- 
ing two acres, when one acre might produce the 
same results. 

About four out of five growers in northern 
N'ew Jersey prefer a sandy soil for strawberries, 
and in the southern section, where the greatest 
number of growers are located, fully two-thirds 
preferred sand loam. Yet from statistics gath- 



225 FRUIT 

GROWING 

ered in the southern section, the State Experi- 
ment Station showed that the average returns per 
acre from clay loam were much heavier than from 
sandy soil ; a given number of growers averaging 
3223 quarts per acre from the clay against 2329 
from the sand. For large yields, clay loam is 
most satisfactory, but for early crops a sandy 
loam with southern exposure is best. 

Prof. Fred W. Card in "Bush Fruit" says that 
" land which will yield profitable returns in bush 
fruits can be found almost everywhere, if the 
soil be not wet and heavy. Red raspberries and 
blackberries succeed well on comparatively light 
soils, provided they retain moisture, while dew- 
berries thrive on very light sand, and currants 
and gooseberries are at home even in heavy clay. 
Stable manure is the best fertilizer. Wood ashes, 
cotton-seed hull ashes and muriate of potash 
form a useful supplement. 

In answer to an inquiry for an average yield 
of blackberries per acre, fifty growers in dif- 
ferent parts of the country reported from 1280 
to 10,000 quarts, the average being 3158 quarts 
or more than ninety bushels per acre. 



A LITTLE LAND 226 

AND A LIVING 

Instances of admirable yields during one sea- 
son are common enough. One grower in a small 
town in central New York sold $500 worth of 
berries from half an acre, and M. A. Thayer, of 
Spark, Wis., raised 200 bushels per acre and 
made a profit of about $250.00. 

Of course, one great consideration in fruit 
growing is to be near a good market. Shipping 
long distances often causes loss by decay, while 
the freight charges materially lessen the profits. 

To grow fruit for family use and have some 
for sale would not require much land. One of 
the U. S. Agricultural Department bulletins 
gives a plan for a small fruit garden, about 60 
X 80 feet, on which the following could be grown : 
Six peach trees; six cherries; six dwarf apple 
trees ; six plums ; twenty blackberries ; forty black 
caps ; forty red raspberries ; three hundred straw- 
berries; thirty-two grape vines, planted at inter- 
vals of ten feet all around the plot ; and eighteen 
dwarf pear trees. If properly cared for, such a 
garden would yield a large return. 



CHAPTER XI 

HORTICULTURE 

The Market — Violets — Greenhouses — Diseases — Roses — 
Chrysanthemums — Poppies — Flowers in the Street — 
Sweet Peas and Wild Flowers — Orchids — Plants for 
Renting — Floriculture. 

IN every city there is a growing demand for 
flowers. Roses, violets, carnations, and chrys- 
anthemums are now most popular. But to make 
horticulture profitable you must in this, as in 
everything else, study your market before de- 
ciding what to raise. If you give all your 
thoughts and energies to raising one flower you 
can produce better results than by raising a 
variety. If you raise enough you can sell direct 
instead of through a commission man and so 
get better prices. There are always good mar- 
kets somewhere, and flowers are shipped from 
New York to Chicago, Buff'alo, Boston, Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and vice 
versa. 

Intelligent eff*ort is the road to success, very 

227 



A LITTLE LAND 228 

AND A LIVING 

little capital being needed. Few among the 
leaders in floriculture started with more than 
$500, and many of them with less. A dozen 
men who have been in the employ of one New 
York florist, some of whom got only twenty dol- 
lars a month at first and afterwards started in 
a small way for themselves, are now making a 
substantial living. 

A lover of flowers can succeed in this busi- 
ness better than in any other with as little capi- 
tal. In the last ten years the business has 
doubled, and while many have gone into it, the 
profit they are making shows that supply has 
not equaled the demand and that is not likely to 
be overdone soon. 

An acre of soil under glass pays fifty times 
as much as an acre out-doors. There are eight 
to ten million square feet of glass in the United 
States devoted to carnations alone, and about 
seven million dollars worth of this one flower 
are sold each year. 

Mrs. H. C. Reynolds and Miss Nina F. How- 
ard started a violet farm at Glencoe, Illinois, in 
1905. Their friends predicted failure, but they 



229 HORTICULTURE AND 

THE MARKET 

studied the best methods of growing, got the 
best possible soil and a greenhouse. They have 
made it a big enterprise. You can do as well. 

Mrs. Reynolds says: *'I am only a begin- 
ner. The first year I had a small house of 3000 
plants and was so successful that I have begun 
now on a larger scale. I have 210 x 165 feet 
of land on which I hope some day to have six 
houses 25 x 150 feet each. I have now two, 
of 5000 plants each. Of course the market is 
here, as all our double violets came from New 
York and however beautiful they were, they had 
lost their perfume on a long journey." 

W. J. Harrison, a druggist at Lakewood, N. 
J., has a violet frame on the ground in front of 
his show window; it gets enough radiated heat 
from the cellar to give a winter crop of violets 
with almost no attention, and violets sell remark- 
ably high in Lakewood. You may make a start 
in some such way and grow up to greenhouses. 

For women who like country life and wish to 
work at home, violet growing offers very great 
inducements. The work is easy, but constant 
attention and great care are necessary. 



A LITTLE LAND ggO 

AND A LIVING 

The temperature of the violet greenhouse 
must be kept between forty-five and fifty de- 
grees. It must have a system of ventilation so 
arranged that it can be operated from within or 
without, as fumigation with the deadly hydro- 
cyanic gas is sometimes necessary, for insects. 
Violets need all the sunshine you can give them 
in December and January and as little as pos- 
sible at other times. They are subject to four 
dangerous diseases, all difficult to exterminate 
when once started, and known as spot disease, 
root rot, wet rot, and yellowing. The best pre- 
ventive is to get strong vigorous cuttings, to 
give careful attention to watering, cultivation 
and ventilation, and to destroy dead and dying 
leaves and all runners as soon as they appear. 

Chrysanthemums are in great demand, par- 
ticularly the large sized, oddly colored ones. 
They are extremely decorative and last so well 
that their continued popularity is assured. The 
importance of the rose and chrysanthemum busi- 
ness is well indicated by the annual shows. 

Poppies are fast coming into favor as a cut 
flower, although they wither quickly. But by 



231 HORTICULTURE AND 

THE MARKET 

picking off all blooms in the evening, cutting 
the new flowers early in the morning and plung- 
ing them immediately into deep water, they are 
made to keep fairly well. 

Mr. Powell, of Fairhope, Alabama, the single 
tax colony, has shipped some gladiolus " spears " 
to New York in the winter, when they readily 
bring ten cents each wholesale, though they sell 
in the Spring at five. He says that fine bulbs 
will sell better still. 

In flowers, as in all garden products, it is 
the thing out of season that pays best. In sum- 
mer when gardens are all a-bloom, there is a 
smaller demand for greenhouse flowers, but 
Fleischmann of Fifth Avenue quotes the follow- 
ing winter prices for cut flowers in New York: 

Chrysanthemums, $2.00 to $5.00 per dozen; 
American Beauty Roses, $1.50 to $5.00 per 
dozen; Violets, $1.00 per hundred; Carnations, 
Killarney Roses, Brides and Maids, Richmonds, 
$1.00 per dozen; Lilies of the Valley, $1.25 per 
bunch of 25. 

Flowers that are sold cheaply in the streets 
are the discarded stock of swell florists. You 



A LITTLE LAND 232 

AND A LIVING 

will find that they are either fading or revived 
with salt and will not keep. That they are so 
peddled, shows that everyone wants flowers, 
those angels without souls. Even common 
flowers will bring good profits and are easily 
grown. We have only to supply a want to find 
our place in life. 

Sweet peas, a favorite flower vdth many, may 
be grown out of doors in the summer where the 
soil is of good depth and quality. Mayblos- 
soms, autumn leaves on the branch, and even 
goldenrod are brought into town and sold at 
good prices. 

Bachelor buttons, cosmos, and even nastur- 
tiums, which you can't keep from growing, if 
you just stick the seed in the ground, or lilies 
of the valley, hardly to be got rid of when once 
started, all find a market, if fresh. And the 
best of it is that one does not even need a green- 
house to grow them and many other dear fa- 
miliar garden blossoms. 

No soil, however hard or apparently barren, 
is too poor for flowers. Eben Rexf ord, in " Four 
Seasons in a Garden," says that the ground of a 



233 HORTICULTURE AND 

THE MARKET 

city yard which he, with the aid of two boys, 
made into a garden in one season, was so hard 
that they had to use axes to break up the clods. 
It was then allowed to stand two days for the 
action of sun and wind, was fertilized by stable 
sweepings, and planted with Petunias, Phlox, 
Calliopsis, Nasturtiums, Zinnias, Asters, Pop- 
pies, Marigolds, Sweet WilHam, and Morning 
Glories. It was a source of delight the whole 
season through. No home acre should be with- 
out its flower garden, as a joy and a revenue 
raiser. 

Some florists have ventured into orchid rais- 
ing, but the business has many drawbacks. To 
make any profit, the flowers must be shipped in 
large quantities and with great regularity, else 
customers are lost and expenses eat up returns. 
To get such a supply of orchids would require 
a large investment and involve much labor. 

By keeping a supply of ferns, palms, and rub- 
ber plants constantly on hand and renting them 
out for social functions, weddings and other oc- 
casions, many florists make considerable money. 

Near the larger cities a thriving business is 



A LITTLE LAND 334 

AND A LIVING 

done in tree planting, which is everywhere on the 
increase. Many florists now raise young trees 
and plants for sale to people improving their 
grounds, planting orchards, etc. This nursery 
business, as it is called, is a special department 
of horticulture and bears the same relation to 
the commercial florist or orchardist that seed 
growing does to the market gardener. The 
largest nurseries in the country were started on 
small capital, but soil and climate enter so largely 
into success that the business is not over-crowded. 
The ever increasing demand for bulbs has led 
to a great extension of the business of raising 
them, but America has a comparatively small 
share in it. Holland is the greatest producer, 
large areas being devoted exclusively to the rais- 
ing of lilies of various sorts. Bulbs require deep, 
rich, warm, and highly manured soil and the 
most careful attention. The high prices paid for 
land in Europe has led to the most modern and 
ingenious methods of increasing soil-production. 
The same necessity has not hitherto existed in 
this country, but it exists now, and it has become 
necessary to get the greatest possible returns, by 



235 HORTICULTURE AND 

THE MARKET 

intensive farming and gardening, from the 
smallest possible piece of land. 

Flower growing is well adapted to women be- 
cause, generally speaking, they have a light touch 
and a capacity for details. The work is light, 
has few disagreeable features and the rewards 
are sure. As the aesthetic qualities of our people 
develop, the raising of flowers for sale will be 
proportionately greater. 



CHAPTER XII 

BUILDING 

Clearing the Land — Lumbermen Buy — Profitable Trees — 
Building a Home — " Hickory Bungalow " — Portable 
Dwellings — Remodeled Buildings — Comfortable Cabins 
— ^Water Supply. 

IF there is but little timber on the land, a 
man can clear it at odd times, but even if 
covered with trees there is no cause for discour- 
agement. Lumbermen will readily buy timber 
by the acre, cut it and haul it. Or the lumber 
may be used in building the house where there 
is no suitable shelter for the family on the " home 
acre." 

Good judgment should be used in cutting trees, 
considering not only the market value, but also 
their qualities as shade trees or revenue pro- 
ducers. Elm and sycamore trees near a house 
are better than a stock of awnings and shades, 
and nut and fruit trees are better than income 
bonds. Sugar maples ten or fifteen feet high 

237 



A LITTLE LAND ggg 

AND A LIVING 

can be transplanted or sold. For the rest, black 
locust sticks can be sold for insulator pins ; cedar 
sticks for hop and bean poles, " curly " or " bird's- 
eye" maple or birch are in great demand for 
furniture. Stumps may be burned or dynamited 
out. Dynamiting is the quicker method, but it 
needs an expert and is expensive. 

The cheapest and simplest way of getting rid 
of large rocks is blasting by fire. A fire is built 
on the top of a rock and kept burning until the 
boulder has been thoroughly heated. When it 
cools it will break easily. If the rock is below 
the surface, a trench must be dug around it, the 
rock slightly raised by levers, and a fire built 
in the trench so that the heat may get under the 
rock. Some people who have burned rock out, 
advocate pouring water upon them while hot, to 
cool them quickly, while others again have found 
that the natural process of expansion and con- 
traction is all that is necessary. 

This method, which has been endorsed by 
miners, farmers, and others, will recall the an- 
cient story that when Hannibal crossed the Alps 
he removed the rocks by heating them and pour- 



239 BUILDING 

WATER SUPPLY 

ing vinegar over them, thus causing them to 
break. The story has long been regarded as 
legendary, but recent events seem to give it an 
air of truth. So far as has been reported, no- 
body has actually tried Hannibal's method. 

When the clearing has been made, we tackle 
the house building. Recent experiments show 
that this need not be the expensive undertaking 
it once was. Even if one be unwilling to live 
in a tent or put up a mere shack, there is no 
call to expend thousands of dollars on a house. 

Comfort, convenience and utility are the im- 
portant considerations, and these may be se- 
cured in a bungalow. In the June, 1907, issue 
of " The Village " Mr. William JefFery says : 

" To get rid of household care, live in an 
American bungalow. I know, for I have tried 
it. A bungalow is a low, compact, rural build- 
ing, with small cellar and large porches, and ours 
is built alongside of a large hickory tree on ac- 
count of which we selected that site for Hick- 
ory Bungalow. The tree is cooler than any 
awning in summer and the delicate tracery of its 
branches is a delight in winter. 



A LITTLE LAND 240 

AND A LIVING 

" The main structure is 30 x 30 feet and faces 
south. The piazza takes eight feet in width 
across the front. The kitchen is at the end, 
leaving 22x30 feet hving room; from the end 
of this a strip twelve feet wide is screened off 
by frames of pine and burlap secured by mould- 
ings, for bedrooms. On top of the screens and 
reaching to the ceiling we have a nice grill 
which permits of sound ventilation and adds dig- 
nity to the interior. The floor of the large room 
upstairs is laid with two smooth faces on top of 
the beam; two chestnut posts support it. The 
room upstair is 13 x 30 and is reached by a de- 
tachable combination ladder and stairs. Some of 
the boys sleep up there. A window in each end 
provides ample ventilation and light.* 

" We built a large chimney with an open fire- 
place, but we found that the open fireplace was 
a delusion. It looked pretty, but did not give 
enough heat; so we installed a wood stove with 
air chambers to improve radiation; when the 
weather is far below zero we can run the tem- 

* Mr. Jeflfery has now added a separate bungalow for his boys; 
it is a great scheme— but " that is another story." 



241 BUILDING 

WATER SUPPLY 

perature up to 85 degrees indoors. We inclosed 
the piazza for the winter with a detachable frame 
containing storm door and windows. This space 
is handy for the children to play in in extreme 
rainy weather. 

"All this cost less than $1500 and gives more 
majesty than a regular house that cost $3500 to 
build. It has already saved us nearly the whole 
of its cost. 

"We have not seen our family doctor since 
we came here. My family consists of six boys 
and a girl. One of the boys, six years old, had 
never been out of the leech's care until we came 
to the bungalow. And now the doctor sends a 
message that if all his patients take to bunga- 
low life he will have to go into some other pro- 
fession. 

"This sounds like a testimonial for some 
patent medicine, but there is no patent for fresh 
air and life on the ground floor, so I give it a 
free ' ad.' We can leave our windows and 
doors all open even in smart cool weather and 
get more air in a minute than we used to get in 
our house in a month. No corridors or halls 



A LITTLE LAND 242 

AND A LIVING 

to obstruct ventilation or to keep clean, no par- 
lor or reception hall, one-story kitchen 12 x 14, 
cellar underneath to keep coal and supplies, hot 
and cold water, range, sink, etc. 

" I cut off eight feet of the piazza for a room. 
I sleep in it with open windows; temperature 
about the same as outdoors and this is the first 
winter in thirty-eight years that I have escaped 
quinsy and tonsilitis. 

" Life in a bungalow means more than simple 
living. It means free and easy fresh air; 
family not too close together; (for our bunga- 
low gives more space than a two- family house) , 
one's own garden, poultry, dogs, and horse; 
fields, flowers, woodland, and stream for the chil- 
dren; the robin, blue jay, black bird, and thrush, 
for constant companions. Fun is expensive, but 
pleasure does not cost a cent. 

" One of the chief advantages of getting into 
a new community is that one thus finds his op- 
portunity for improving conditions, shaping bet- 
ter tax laws, securing good roads, up-to-date 
facilities, free schools, lectures, entertainments, 
etc., all of which add to the charms of country 



243 BUILDING 

WATER SUPPLY 

life. Our life in a bungalow has been a fine 
success. It is at Berkeley Heights, about 500 
feet above sea level, in a beautiful country with 
woodland and river, yet only 26 miles from 
New York. There are plenty of such places. 

"I am proud of my bungalow and will be 
pleased to show it to anyone, as a type of Ameri- 
can house especially suited to the intensive 
farmer.'* 

Except in lumber districts wooden houses are 
becoming more expensive annually and are be- 
ing superseded by houses built of concrete blocks. 
These are fully as cheap now as frame or brick 
houses and can more easily be made cold and 
vermin proof. 

Then there are the portable houses costing 
from $300 for four rooms, upward. These are 
desirable where land is taken on a short lease or 
for experiment, although they can be adapted 
for year round use at a moderate additional 
cost. These different types of dwellings show 
that the cost of building a home need not deter 
anyone really anxious to get back to the land for 
a Hving. 



A LITTLE LAND 244 

AND A LIVING 

Of course if there are buildings on your acre, 
you may count yourself lucky. No matter how 
old or dilapidated the house, it can be made 
habitable by the expenditure of a few dollars, 
or a good barn may be made into a house at a 
low cost. 

Whether one build or alter, one should study 
plans so as to get the most for one's investment. 
It is easy to spend a few hundred dollars in 
making an attractive house, but if it cost a great 
deal to heat, or the sun cannot get into the liv- 
ing rooms it will be expensive to maintain. A 
fireplace in the outer wall of a house will do 
little to warm the interior, no matter how big 
the fire in it; while, if the chimney is placed in 
the middle walls, half the fuel will keep the 
whole house comfortable. Get some woman's 
aid in arranging your house. The house is a 
woman's domain, generally speaking, and she 
can give valuable hints to the best architects. 

Some advertising architects will guarantee 
their estimate of cost — no charge for the plans 
if the house costs more than they saj^; that will 
help to keep one out of a financial hole. 



245 BUILDING 

WATER SUPPLY 

An important item is the water supply, if 
the place chosen is away from town water sys- 
tems. If there is a good spring on the acre, 
pipes can be laid from it to the house and a 
pump in the kitchen sink will do the rest, but 
if you can get a fall of ten or twelve feet from 
spring to kitchen, no pump will be needed. 

If you have to drive a well, the average cost 
is about one dollar per foot. A barrel or tank 
over the stove where the water can be pumped 
gives a good water supply to the kitchen. 

Where the water system does not admit of a 
bathroom and toilet, the outdoor closet should 
be built in a modern way. The contents if 
mixed with earth or litter may be used as a gar- 
den fertilizer. 

Make a shaft, say 2x4, down the side or at 
the corner of the house to form the toilet room. 
Sections of 12-inch vitrified pipe form a recep- 
tacle, the end with the collar being uppermost 
and touching the underside of the seat. The 
lower end is supported by bricks or stone a foot 
from the ground. Once a week put a wheel- 
barrow load of good earth, rotten sods, or leaf 



A LITTLE LAND 246 

AND A LIVING 

mould into the box, at the sides of the pipe, 
where it can be reached by raising the seat. Then 
take a barrow load out at the bottom and the 
waste is completely absorbed and broken down 
by the bacteria. The soil must be full of humus 
and friable. Sand or road dust will not do. If 
the grade permits, a longer shaft is better, as the 
earth will then take longer to pass through ; with 
one length disintegration and deodorization is 
complete in ten days. The vitrified pipe is clean, 
non-absorbent and confines the mass to small 
limits. It can be washed with hot water. Two 
scoop fuls (less than a quart) thrown in when 
the closet is used, is sufficient. There will be 
no drafts in such a closet. 



CHAPTER XIII 

CO-OPERATION IN OPERATION 

Toil Without Reward — " Back to tlie Land " — How to Get 
Land — Co-operation — Man's Natural Job — Organization 
— In Europe — In America — Fellowship Farm — The Ar- 
den Colony- — Farming a Business — Changes Imminent. 

HARD, anxious work, with little to show for 
it in the end, is the portion of the average 
man. Life is something that was thrust upon him 
unasked and must be maintained at any cost. It 
seldom occurs to him that there is anything 
either beautiful or wonderful in it. He begins 
to drudge in youth and for years the daily round 
of rising unrefreshed from sleep under condi- 
tions that make rest impossible, to spend hours 
in a workshop or factory and then return to his 
cramped, airless quarters, goes on without hope 
of change. How incomprehensible to him the 
joyous cry of Browning " Oh, the wild joys of 
living I " A man who said this to his fellow work- 

94,1 



A LITTLE LAND 248 

AND A LIVING 

man would likely be thought crazy. But it was 
that these wild joys of living might be more 
generally known that the "Back to the Land" 
movement was started. It has gathered force 
so that nothing can now stop it, and the only 
thing remaining is to show the eager seeker for 
land how he may get it and how to work it to 
best advantage. Nothing can give a man such 
a feeling of independence as owning the land 
on which and from which he lives, and there is 
no need of despair because he is unable to buy 
what he wants at once.. There are ways of mak- 
ing small sums count. Co-operation is one of 
them. 

Co-operation is wealth. Given certain re- 
sources, or raw material, human labor on the " to- 
gether" plan produces manifold results which 
can never be realized by individual separate ef- 
fort. Indeed, the key to our 20th century 
economic progress is combination, organization, 
co-operation — these three — and the greatest of 
these is co-operation. 

The basic resource, or raw material, for the 
field of human co-operation is the land. Every- 



249 CO-OPERATION 

IN OPERATION 

one instinctively knows that his natural "job" 
is on the land. Those who are engaged in other 
occupations than tilling the soil, as Emerson 
says, " are using a makeshift and are only tem- 
porarily excused from their real calling." Land 
and labor are wed, whosoever puts them asunder 
commits sacrilege; for in their union is health, 
wealth, and happiness — in their severance is dis- 
ease, glut, and hunger, arrogance and misery. 

Therefore, workers, get land. 

How can the working class, poor men, get 
land? Every acre of available land is held by 
owners and costs more money than the average 
worker can accumulate; he cannot buy a square 
foot at a time, as he does a hod of coal or a 
bundle of wood. How can such a hand-to-mouth 
wage-worker buy land, even only an acre? 

By combining his slender surplus with the lit- 
tle savings of others, and together pooling a 
monthly sum, hardly more than they spend for 
"beer and baccy," and organizing for the pur- 
pose, a group of from twenty to fifty working 
men can buy the best farm in their locality. 

This is being done extensively in the German 



A LITTLE LAND 250 

AND A LIVING 

Empire, especially in Prussia and Bavaria, as fl 
also in America, particularly in Southern Cali- 
fornia — the Dos Palos colony, the El Capitan 
colony, and the British colony, besides the Co- 
burn Township in Texas, and New Clairvaux 
and Fellowship Farm in Massachusetts being 
successful examples. Most of these colonies or- 
ganize simply to secure for individuals one to 
twenty acres, the colony making a collective first 
payment on the tract of land bought, then car- 
rying the interest, taxes, and subsequent pay- 
ments of principal until the titles are cleared, 
when they dissolve their organizations, each per- 
son or family securing its separate holding. But 
after disorganization, often the co-operative 
plan continues in their buying and selling of com- 
modities and products. 

The most recent and typical example of co- 
operative land buying and land using is on Fel- 
lowship Farm, in Westwood, Massachusetts. 
Here, in 1906, a group of forty socialists, gath- 
ered from different States and two from Scot- 
land, organized (after they had raised $1000 to 
pay down) and secured a beautiful, $8000 sev- 



251 CO-OPERATION 

IN OPERATION 

enty-five acre farm, 14 miles from Boston, via 
trolley and steam cars. Some put up as much 
as $100, and others could only advance a first 
payment of $2.50 toward the required $1000 
down. 

The $7000 on mortgage was arranged so 
that it can be discharged with all interest and 
taxes paid in ten years — each member of the 
group to pay as dues $2.50 per month until he or 
she has paid a total of $300, — or collectively 
$12,000. For this $300 each is to receive a war- 
ranty deed to a lot of about an acre on a fifty 
foot road, besides a fortieth interest in the col- 
lective holding of some twenty-five acres with 
buildings, and the benefits and profits of common 
enterprises. There is a provision for the indi- 
vidual free and clear of the group, and also for 
fellowship and corporate effort and life. Since 
the organization nearly an extra $1000 has been 
raised for improvements on the collective prop- 
erty, and besides a large cottage worth about 
$1800, several cottages costing from $200 to $300 
have been built, showing that for $500 or $600, 
accumulated at the rate of $5 or $6 a month, a 



A LITTLE LAND 252 

AND A LIVING 

working man with a small family can secure land, 
and a house of his own on it, and a job from 
which he cannot be " fired " — can become moder- 
ately independent and free — by co-operation. 
The motto of the Association should be; 

Get three acres and live by it. 

Get a spade and try it. 

And get out of debt. 

Get off the back of the workers. 

Get out of the power of the shirkers. 

Get up and Get. 

Co-operation has made great strides in Great 
Britain, although colony life is only in its in- 
fancy, H. D. Lloyd in " Labor Copartnership " 
says: "The co-operative movement after fifty 
years of struggle, has had years of living pros- 
perity and a greater prosperity is coming into 
view. It has achieved an economic footing of 
a hundred millions of property and enlisted at 
least one-seventh of the w^orking-classes in its 
ranks. It is an established religion; for co-oper- 
ation is not a method of business merely, but 
an ideal of conduct and a theory of human rela- 



253 CO-OPERATION 

IN OPERATION 

tions. Co-operation has won the right to be 
accounted the most important social movement 
of our times outside of pohtics. It is of course 
only a half truth, but the world needs half truths 
to make up its whole truth." 

There are tracts near all good markets where 
communities could be established. The value of 
co-operation and combination has been learned 
partly through the trades unions and partly 
through the success of big corporations. As soon 
as men learn to look upon farming as a business 
to which business principles should be applied, 
co-operative farming will spread rapidly. 

The earth can be made to yield many times 
more abundantly through the application of in- 
tensive methods; the same methods applied to 
effort will give still more abundant returns. This 
is proved by all the experiments in co-operative 
farming. 

But the people must have room near to one 
another to make co-operation natural and easy. 

There will be a revolution in our farming plans 
and in our farm life just as soon as the people 
wake up to the fact that the land about our towns 



A LITTLE LAND 254 

AND A LIVING 

and cities, nearly all of which is now held idle 
for speculation, is the land out of which they 
should get their living. Nine-tenths of Greater 
New York is not in use. 

The normal and healthy growth of our com- 
munities is strangled by a system which hugely 
rewards men, at the expense of the workers and 
improvers, for keeping the available land va- 
cant. Those lands about every centre of popu- 
lation in every civilized country are grossly un- 
dervalued for taxation, often at only five per 
cent, of what they would sell for. 

Bay Shore, Long Island, for instance, but by 
no means the worst one, is choked by the Law- 
rence Estate of some seven hundred and fifty 
acres on the west; the bulk of which is worth 
$600 per acre, but assessed at $135,000, includ- 
ing improvements; by the South Side Club's 
some eight hundred acres on the east, which could 
not be bought at $500 per acre, but is assessed 
at only $15,000. And the village is cut in two 
by the Dominy lands of some eight acres, worth 
upwards of $10,000 per acre, and assessed at 
about $18,000 for the plot. Meanwhile, the 



255 CO-OPERATION 

IN OPERATION 

houses of the working people are assessed up to 
about 80 per cent, of their real value. 

As Shearman shows in his "Natural Taxa- 
tion," taxing things that people make hits the 
farmer hard, though he does not know it. Lit- 
tle of his property can be concealed from the 
assessor, and he pays directly and indirectly 
much more than his due share of taxes. But 
that is as nothing compared with the indirect 
injury he suffers by being forced out by the high 
prices of suburban land to a distance from his 
customer and from the opportunities and advan- 
tages of city life. Isolation and the cost of 
hauling are bad enough. But far worse is the 
waste of energy and decreased production re- 
sulting from the holding out of use of these lots 
that are near the markets. The farmer is forced 
out to the wilds, and his customers are forced 
into the cities, and between the two is this desert 
of speculation. 

A millionaire consumes but little more food 
stuff than a mechanic ought to consume and 
would consume if his opportunities of earning 
were not cut off by the holding of land out of 



A LITTLE LAND 256 

AND A LIVING 

use and the consequent crowding of the workers 
into slums and tenements. The farmers' natural 
customers, the great plain people, are not able 
to buy the things they need. This is mainly 
because their rents or the prices they have to 
pay for their home sites are so high, and be- 
cause those lots where homes and shops and fac- 
tories ought to be are kept idle, and mines, coal 
lands, clay pits, quarries, and sand banks, that 
are now needed to employ the people, are un- 
worked, or only partly worked. 

The suburbs and the country districts are un- 
developed or half developed, because the money 
raised by taxation is insufficient to pay laborers 
who need the jobs, for making good roads, 
bridges, streets, water works, and other neces- 
sities of civilized life. So the growth of sec- 
tions near the cities is checked till the specula- 
tors cut their own throats, and there is a fall in 
prices or " dull times in suburbans." 

There is neither reason nor justice in allow- 
ing owners of valuable lands to hold them al- 
most untaxed until the pressure of population 
forces the prices up to fancy figures which 



257 CO-OPERATION 

IN OPERATION 

tempt them to let them go — fancy figures which 
must be paid, indirectly and directly too, by 
those who make things.* 

We most stupidly and unfairly discriminate 
in our assessments in favor of those who do 
nothing but keep land idle, and against those 
who develop and improve it. When the natural 
opportunities and resources of the lands which 
lie out of the cities are assessed for taxation, as 
the law even now requires, up to their real and 
full value, we shall have done much to solve the 
problem of the congestion of towns and the un- 
employed, and we shall have, not for the four 
hundred but for the forty millions, an era of 
prosperity of which we have not yet dreamed. 

* Land in Greater New York averages over $200,000 in value 
for each acre. 



CHAPTER XIX 

TO START SANITARIUM WORK 

Outdoor Life Effective — Dr. Trudeau's Plan — Bad Condi- 
tions — Convalescents Work — The Earth for Men — Loca- 
tion Important — The Superintendent's Value — The 
Money Needed — Supplementary Industries — Preserving, 
Baking, Selling, etc. — Start Now. 

LITTLE has yet been done in providing out- 
' door employment for tubercular patients, 
although the experience of the Vacant Lot Gar- 
dens in individual cases has shown it to be most 
effective. 

Dr. Trudeau's sanitarium in the Adirondacks, 
however, has just initiated an Industrial and 
Gardening Association where patients will be 
able to employ themselves in the open air, even- 
tually to support themselves and to learn a trade 
which will keep them outdoors. 

To return an arrested case to the bench or desk 
is generally to re-pronounce the sentence of 
death from which the unfortunate has been re- 

259 



A LITTLE LAND 260 

AND A LIVING 

prieved. It is, therefore, to be hoped that there 
will be a large and rapid extension of this com- 
mon sense principle. 

The plan undertaken will provide occupation, 
training and support for those who are convales- 
cent from consumption. Little work is to be 
expected from those who are ill, but when the 
patient is cured, or the disease arrested, the per- 
son requires outdoor life and the opportunity of 
self-support without returning to indoor labor. 

This is no experiment; it has been done on a 
charitable basis in more than twenty places in 
the United States. That it can be done and 
how it is being done by the use of very small 
patches of land intensively used, is amply shown 
elsewhere. The paralytic, rheumatics, drunkards, 
defectives, cripples, women, even children, can 
shift for themselves, if they get to mother earth. 
Says Lyman Abbot: "For one man who can 
find a job there are thousands who can do a job 
well when it is found for them." We must find 
it for them, but how? 

People will work and work effectively, when 
they have the opportunity and intelligent super- 



261 TO START 

SANITARIUM WORK 

vision, and when they see the results and get 
the whole proceeds for themselves. Get a piece 
of land; ten acres will do, and fifty is not too 
much; it should be near a town or an institution 
where the product may be sold. 

It is better to pay five hundred dollars for an 
acre of land close to residences than a hundred 
dollars an acre for outlying land, because it is 
cheaper to get stable manure to it, and it is more 
accessible to the cultivator, besides being easier 
to show and closer to the market; and because 
the rise in the value of the land is greater and 
more certain. 

A temporary shelter or house should be put 
up for superintendence and storage; tents and 
shacks will serve for the cultivators who desire 
to live on the land. But most of them will go to 
and fro from their residences. 

Everything depends upon the superintendent, 
who should be capable of undertaking the whole 
affair; finding the land; raising the money; hav- 
ing the land plowed and getting stable or other 
manure put upon it. Then let the superinten- 
dent see all those who might help to buy seeds 



A LITTLE LAND 262 

AND A LIVING 

and plants or get them donated. Explain the 
plan to the cultivators and apportion plots to 
each, a quarter of an acre or less, up to even an 
acre, in accordance with the probable capacity 
of each. 

The superintendent, he or she, should have hot- 
beds prepared in advance, mark out the plots 
and meet the cultivators by appointment at the 
ground. Instruct them as to the preparation of 
the soil, what they should plant and how; which 
way the rows should run, and what must be put 
in each ; how deep the seeds should be planted, 
and every other detail of culture. The super- 
intendent should be constantly on the ground 
and know and be patient with the peculiarities 
and shortcomings of the cultivators. There will 
be stupidities and obstinacy enough to try the 
patience of Job, but "the guides should not be 
angry with those who go astray." Any who can- 
not or will not work simply forfeit their plots 
for neglect or insubordination. 

When all this is done, the enterprise is started. 
The money needed will be: — enough to make at 
least a partial payment on the land, to put up the 



263 TO START 

SANITARIUM WORK 

shelter and a stable ; to get a pair of horses and a 
harness for hauling manure ; to buy seed, a farm 
wagon and some kind of carriage, a plow, har- 
row, weeder, sprayer and other tools, for all of 
which (exclusive of the land and buildings) five 
hundred dollars will be ample. 

The superintendent's salary should not be less 
than eighteen hundred dollars a year, as on that 
officer's ability and intelligence the whole thing 
depends. Even if a greenhouse be not used (as 
it is not essential) , and if there be no industrial 
features added, the superintendent will find am- 
ple work in the winter in making the report, lec- 
turing, writing and otherwise extending the 
scheme. 

Here is an opening for any capable man or 
woman anywhere — for there is unbounded room 
for such institutions and charitable people will 
give freely to them. 

To employ those who cannot wait even the 
month or six weeks needed for radishes and such 
quick-growing crops to mature, there should be 
a co-operative plot on which they may be given 
work at such a rate per hour as their labor 



A LITTLE LAND 
AND A LIVING 

may be worth, the crop to belong to the Associa- 
tion. 

For this purpose seven hundred dollars should' 
be enough — say a thousand. Another fifteen 
hundred should be added to all this, to avoid run- 
ning short. The building of a house is a later 
matter, but it will naturally follow. Even if but 
half a dozen should be found to take up individ- 
ual plots to begin with, there would be no cause 
for discouragement, as the plan here as elsewhere 
will be justified by its works, and experience 
shows that as the first of the succession crops be- 
gins to come up, more applicants for the land are 
found than can be accommodated. 

Some will be found who can take up detached 
bits of land, under the superintendent's direction 
and preparation, and take care of them on their 
own account. Many know how to raise chickens, 
flowers, fruits, or small animals, and can have a 
chance to do so. To care for an acre intelligently 
does not take over a month's work altogether dur- 
ing the entire season even of unskilled labor,* and 
when the rudiments of agriculture are learned, 
employment for spare time can be found in car- 

* See Chapter VII. 



2g5 TO START 

SANITARIUM WORK 

ing for the yards and plots of town residents, 
and in selling the products. 

Natural supplementary industries will grow 
up around the headquarters, as they ought to 
grow around any intelligent cultivator's plot, 
such as preserving fruit and fine vegetables, dry- 
ing kitchen herbs, like thyme, marjoram and sum- 
mer savory; cake baking, candy making, nut 
shelling, birch bark and rustic work. Those who 
can themselves sell direct at retail, early, fresh, 
well selected vegetables or flowers, will of course 
get the largest prices. 

What is necessary is to make a beginning — 
now. To wait for another year is needlessly to 
sacrifice not only well-being, but lives. 

Halifax, Nova Scotia, owned a large tract of 
land in connection with its city prison. It was 
wild, rough, rocky land supposed to be incapable 
of cultivation. No effort was made to grow any- 
thing upon it. In 1880 the city appointed a new 
governor, a man city bred, with no experience in 
farming, but he had faith in the possibilities of 
God's good earth and prepared to prove it. With 
the cheap labor at hand he began at once to clear 



A LITTLE LAND 266 

AND A LIVING 

the land. He used large quantities of dynamite 
to blow out rocks and stumps. Where, as in many- 
places, the soil was too thin to support vegeta- 
tion, he had earth hauled. He fertilized thor- 
oughly with stable manure (got free for the haul- 
ing from livery stables) , and also with a compost 
made from the contents of vaults mixed with 
earth sods and stable sweepings, and thoroughly 
rotted. Lettuce, onions, carrots, beans, peas, 
chives, beets, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, cucum- 
bers, cabbage, squash and celery figured in the 
crops he raised, to say nothing of the fields of 
hay and forage raised for the horses and cattle. 

Besides the saving to the city in cost of food 
stuffs, the male prisoners who worked in the sun- 
shine throve so well that this, with the change in 
their diet made possible by the farm products, 
entirely banished scurvy and other diseases which 
had been prevalent hitherto. The plan of giving 
each prisoner a plot to cultivate for his own use 
has not been tried, partly because it had not oc- 
curred to the governor, and partly because the 
prisoners have such short terms that the one who 
planted would seldom reap. But the results have 



267 TO START 

SANITARIUM WORK 

once more established the truth that no land is 
barren ; a little earth, a quantity of fertilizer, con- 
siderable intelligence, a study of agricultural 
journals, good seeds and timely care, will secure 
a crop anywhere. 

Philadelphia has recently carried the experi- 
ment of farming into hitherto untried fields; it 
has set some of its insane charges to work at cul- 
tivating the land, and the results have been most 
satisfactory. Many of the workers were hope- 
lessly insane, but the benefit derived from health- 
ful, outdoor work was most marked even in the 
worst cases, while many who suffered from 
milder forms of dementia were completely cured. 
The value of the products on the Byberry farm 
was fully $10,000, and larger returns are ex- 
pected next year. The workers themselves were 
delighted with the change and took much pride 
in their work. Healthful exercise in fresh air 
led to a natural fatigue so that the insane workers 
readily fell asleep at night, and " Nature's kind 
restorer" helped to heal their troubled minds. 
This experiment will doubtless be repeated by 
other cities where the problem of properly caring 



A LITTLE LAND ggg 

AND A LIVING 

for the demented is being carefully solved. If 
the excitement, speculation, fear and depression 
of modern city life induce insanity, as they un- 
doubtedly do, it is reasonable to expect that a re- 
turn to healthful, normal conditions of living — 
getting back to the land upon which man depends 
for everything — ^will do much to effect a cure.* 

* There is a general impression that farmer's wives are es- 
pecially subject to insanity. This may sometimes occur from 
loneliness and drudgery, but a somewhat superficial investigation 
of Massachusetts and Iowa statistics showed that they are less 
subject to insanity than factory hands. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PROFESSION OF FARMING 

Agriculture, Past and Future — The Average Farmer — The 
Boy and the Garden — The Trained Farmer — Salaries 
Await Him — Fresh Discoveries — Fields for Investigation 
— Grown from the Best— The Profit of the Earth— Mo- 
nopoly Conditions — The Value of the Farm — How to 
Proceed — The Aim of This Book. 

AGRICULTURE has been neglected as a 
-^^ profession because of the isolation of the 
farmer forced to low priced land at a distance 
from those with whom he must trade ; the bright 
boys will not stay for such a life as that, so they 
go to the cities, leaving stagnation behind them. 
The future of farming lies with our boys. 
Whether it shall become the chosen calling of 
specially trained young men with all the added 
dignity that such training could bring to it, or 
remain what it has hitherto been, concerns them 
even more than us. 

Although tilling the soil is the oldest occupa- 

2^9 



A LITTLE LAND onn 

AND A LIVING ' 

tion, it has been the last to feel the necessity and 
benefit of special training. For this reason it 
has not taken its rightful position. But its pos- 
sibilities have attracted specialists who have 
shown that no career is more inviting or more lu- 
crative or more dignified than that of the skillful 
foster-father of plants. 

It is a common saying that "the Southern 
farmer spends his life fighting grass, to raise cot- 
ton, to buy hay." 

In just the same way the Northern farmer 
worries over "them pesky briers," blackberries 
and raspberries, that grow by his fences, and 
roots them out to plant corn that brings him fif- 
teen dollars an acre profit : if he would encourage 
the briers he might reap five hundred dollars an 
acre from them. 

Says the President of the Chicago Great 
Western R.R. Co.: 

" The eccentric and witty Lorenzo Dow was in 
the corn-hog belt when he said : 

"'The average Western farmer toils hard, 
often depriving himself of needed rest — to raise 
corn — for what? To feed hogs — for what? To 



271 THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

get money with which to buy more land — for 
what? To raise more corn — for what? To feed 
more hogs — for what? To buy more land. And 
why does he want more land? Why, he wishes to 
raise more corn, to feed more hogs. And in this 
circle he moves until the Almighty stops his hog- 
gish proceedings.' 

" But in my judgment, working early and late 
to raise more corn, to feed more hogs, in order to 
buy more land, is not farming, but speculation. 
The great fault of American agriculture is too 
much land." 

That is passing away and the farmer is learn- 
ing that the small farm near the town is the 
money maker. 

So far as farming is concerned, big-scale pro- 
duction is not increasing, but the opposite. For 
better transportation, better culivation, and above 
all, better education is changing farm life. Now 
we must make the land attractive to the boys so 
that they shall not go "back to the land," but 
will never leave it. 

Children brought up in city tenements tend to 
become sickly and vicious, whereas on the farm 



A LITTLE LAND 272 

AND A LIVING 

they have a chance to grow into vigorous, self- 
respecting men and women. It is the city that 
breeds or attracts most of the pauperism and- 
crime. The country has its own healthful life. 
To give children a fair start in life it is neces- 
sary that they should live close to "the good 
brown earth." 

The school gardens, the home gardens and the 
individual plots belonging to the boys are the 
best means of influencing the children, and there 
has been a remarkable growth of these here and 
in Europe in the past seven years. The effect is 
moral as well as economic. Even in the worst 
neighborhoods there has been no stealing, and the 
children themselves have been watchful to pre- 
vent injury from either carelessness or dishon- 
esty. 

Through such agencies we shall discover what 
children have a natural bent for farming, and 
in due course parents will encourage that taste as 
they now encourage other tastes and inclinations: 
In the past the boy's experience of farming was 
doing hard work at the behest of another, and 
getting no direct benefit. Besides, farming was 



273 THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

a blind thing even to the farmer, how much more 
to the uninstructed boy? 

The one idea many people have with reference 
to the child and agriculture is — weeding ! Weed- 
ing that, with the " total depravity of inanimate 
things," always requires to be done when other 
and larger interests are absorbing the child's 
mind. 

Now, the fact is, agriculture is one of the most 
fascinating of occupations to children. 

Hundreds of cities within the last few years 
have taken up the " School Gardens " idea, and 
they report this year thousands of applicants for 
garden plots they have no room for. In Water- 
town, Massachusetts, for example, a town of only 
1200, they have 150 garden plots and 20 on the 
waiting lists, besides 100 "home gardens," i. e., 
garden plots in the children's home yards. These 
"home gardens" are properly a post-graduate 
course, the child needing the instruction received 
in the community gardens to fit him to work 
alone. 

The crux of the matter is, if you want a child 
(or an adult) to take an interest in agriculture, 



A LITTLE LAND 374, 

AND A LIVING 

give him entire charge of a plot of ground and 
let the product of his labor be his. The culti- 
vation of the soil has been proved an effectual 
means of development along wholesome lines 
when the members of any institution are al- 
lowed to get the most they can out of the soil, 
and to have what they get. On the other hand, 
it has no more value than the " weeding " when 
they are treated simply as hired hands. 

When a boy shows an inclination toward gar- 
dening he should be given a plot, shown how to 
plant it, encouraged to make a study of agricul- 
ture, and allowed all the returns. This will make 
him regard farming or gardening as a business, 
rather than merely as an occupation; that is the 
first step toward restoring agriculture to its 
proper place. 

Take in good agricultural journals, secure re- 
liable books and discuss possibilities with him. 
Children treated in this way surprise us by their 
original and practical ideas. A boy who has 
gathered the fruits of his toil, read and studied 
good agricultural papers, will want to know more 
than these can give him. He should then be given 



275 THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

a few years at an agricultural college. When 
through he will know more of soils and their pos- 
sibilities to start with, than his father knew at the 
end of a long and laborious life. 

Having special training for his calling, it will 
take on added dignity in his eyes and eventually 
in the eyes of his neighbors. A " farmer " will 
not be synonymous with an illiterate boor, but 
may take his place with lawyers, doctors, minis- 
ters and others who are specially trained for their 
life work. Hitherto farmers and mothers have 
been the only persons with important work who 
have had no scientific training. 

Farming under modern methods is as desir- 
able a profession for a girl as for a boy, and any 
bent in that direction should be as thoroughly 
developed in the one as the other. It opens 
another healthful, natural business for a girl. 

In New Jersey the Baron de Hirsch Trustees 
have a farm at Woodbine, and Rutger's College, 
New Brunswick, has courses in agriculture. 
Others are following suit. 

There is little danger of that profession becom- 
ing overcrowded. Millions of acres of land in the 



A LITTLE LAND 276 

AND A LIVING 

country are yet unbroken, and millions more, 
under so-called cultivation, can be made to pro- 
duce ten- fold by scientific methods. 

Large land owners. Irrigation and Reclama- 
tion Companies, are inquiring for graduates of 
all such schools. Government experiment sta- 
tions and the great railroad systems are on the 
lookout for them. At one time railroads were 
content to offer good lands to the farmer and let 
him make what he would ; now they have learned 
the importance of helping him to see what could 
be made if he followed the best plans. Scientific 
men are awaking to the limitless field of science 
applied to the land. Every day brings us au- 
thentic reports of extraordinary and important 
discoveries. For example. Prof. Waugh finds 
that soaking seeds in beer promotes vigor and 
growth, which is interesting to our prohibition 
friends, though it does not appear that beer soak- 
ing improves men. 

It has been found that the agaves, of which 
the century plant is one, furnish food, drink, 
soap, clothing, cordage, (sisal) paper, sticks, 
light, beams, medicine and ornament. They 



277 THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

grow in Mexico, and there is no doubt that the 
increasing price would make it worth while to 
find a species that will grow in our deserts. 

We know almost nothing of nature's re- 
sources; there are uses for many plants now re- 
garded as pests, but no one has yet investigated ; 
quantities of roots, fruits and herbs not now in 
use are valuable edibles. We call them weeds 
because we do not yet know their uses. 

Someone might write a useful book and gain 
reputation and position by summarizing and 
popularizing for Americans the vast literature 
on Intensive Farming which exists in France, 
Germany, Italy, Denmark, Holland and other 
countries. The literature of farming is exten- 
sive. We have over 400 farm periodicals in the 
U. S. The Astor Library in New York has some 
ten thousand volumes on agriculture in which one 
can lose himself, if not his mind ; but there is lit- 
tle of the lore of foreign countries accessible at 
present in this country ; however, there is enough 
for newspaper and magazine articles, the recep- 
tion of which might encourage the expenditure 
of time and money to get these most important 



A LITTLE LAND 278 

AND A LIVING 

and interesting facts, about which we know, at 
present, practically nothing. 

No soil is worthless or really barren, if we 
bring the soil and the right plant together. Fer- 
tilization and irrigation will make any soil pro- 
ductive for almost anything. 

The greatest rival to Holland in bulb growing 
is now the Puget Sound country. Mr. George 
Gibs established the business there after investi- 
gating soil and climate conditions. Despite fail- 
ure at first, he persisted in his efforts and is now 
growing rich. 

Those who do not know and will not learn, 
cannot hope to make a living off three acres or 
thirty acres. But he who studies, observes, ex- 
periments, finds it pays him well to cultivate even 
one acre thoroughly. 

You are constantly urged to think and study, 
but you must do something also and do it now. 
Thinking without doing is dreaming. You don't 
want to be like Bobby : 

"What was that terrific noise upstairs early 
this morning?" inquired Bobby's father as the 
boy appeared at the breakfast table. 



279 ^^^ PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

" Well," explained Bobby, " I dremp I was a 
duck, an' when I woke up I had swum off the 
bed." 

Seed improvements offers a big field. One 
practical man found that potato scab can be 
combated by simply exposing the seed tubers to 
that great germ destroyer sunlight, and that this 
hastens their growth. 

A minister inherited a wornout farm of fif- 
teen acres with a soil of reddish gravelly clay. 
After studying the best and most modern farm- 
ing literature he started a dairy farm. He kept 
30 head of cattle, raised his own "roughage," 
sold milk, bred cattle, and cleared more than 
$1000 a year per acre. The cows were kept in 
the barn the year round as his land, being near 
the city of Philadelphia, was too valuable to be 
used as pasturage. 

The time is at hand when the principles we 
are laying down in this book for specialties will 
be applied to the great staples, and we shall be 
able to double and redouble our yields.. Even 
now it is true of com when farmers give special 
attention to it. The irsitanses given in Chapter 



A LITTLE LAND 280 

AND A LIVING 

V of the results of the Agriculturist contest 
show what can be done. When corn is grown 
for the ears, and not for the stalk, farmers will 
plant only such seed as has proved most prolific, 
and the stalks will be cut back, that all the plant's 
strength may go into producing more ears. 

If you happen to have poor land and you have 
brains enough, you can make your neighbors wish 
their land was as poor too, as one man, Mr. E. 
Mclver Williamson, of Mont Clare, South Caro- 
lina, did. He took advantage of the fact that his 
land was very poor to stunt his corn, and put all 
the strength of the plant into the ears. 

This was the way he went about it. He planted 
the corn in the poor subsoil and the best it could 
do was to grow to between two and three feet 
high, then when the time came for the ears to set 
he piled on a rich top soil, in other words, fed the 
plant all it could use, and all the strength of the 
plant went to the formation of ears; not as in 
ordinary cases, mostly to stalk and leaves. The 
consequence was he had a much larger yield per 
acre than the average, and his envious neighbors 
complained that they could not do that because 



281 THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

their soil wasn't poor. Mr. Williamson has made 
a special study of corn growing. He says : " No 
farmer is so rich that he can afford to till poor 
land, nor any land, except in the best manner, 
planted in the crop best suited to it." In 1904 
at an expense of $11 per acre for fertilizer, he 
averaged 84 bushels yield to the acre, the best 
single acre yield being 125 bushels. 

Farmers are awaking to the value of selected 
and specialized seeds. One hundred and twenty- 
five students took the special examination for 
corn judging certificates at the Iowa State Agri- 
cultural College at Ames last year. In the corn 
growers' contest there were nearly eight hundred 
entries. The corn sale followed, during which 
the world's record was established. 

The prize lots brought fine prices, sales of ten 
ears at twenty-five, twenty and fifteen dollars 
being common. The champion ear of corn last 
year, which was exhibited by H. J. Ross, was sold 
for eleven dollars. The grand champion ear 
grown this year by D. L. Pascal, was offered at 
auction. Starting at ten dollars, the bids were 
raised successively, five dollars at a time, until 



A LITTLE LAND 282 

AND A LIVING 

the price of one hundred and fifty dollars was 
reached, when the ear was secured by the former 
owner. It was the Reid Yellow Dent variety, 
weighing nineteen ounces. Each kernel is valued 
at thirteen cents, and the purchase price is at the 
rate of eight thousand, eight hundred and fifty 
dollars per bushel. 

The champion ten ears of corn ten years ago 
sold for thirty dollars, which up to that time was 
the highest price paid for seen corn. — Farmings 
May, 1907. 

It is poor economy that keeps the smallest and 
poorest potatoes for seed. The breeder of ani- 
mals does not keep the weaklings for breeding 
purposes. He selects the best. Just so corn 
should be planted from seed secured from the 
stalks that produced most. 

In 1899 six pounds of Swedish select oats were 
planted in Wisconsin. In 1905 there were har- 
vested 9,000,000 bushels. In localities where it 
was unprofitable to raise ordinary wheat because 
of slight rainfall, macaroni wheat was planted. 
In 1905 the yield was 20,000,000 bushels. 

If anyone thinks the profit of the earth will 



28S THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

come to the cultivator without intelligent and 
persistent effort, he is a fool. No owner of land, 
unless others require it to live upon, can make 
money by neglecting it. 

There is no scarcity of land to feed the world 
even at the old wasteful rate, but it is not acces- 
sible under present conditions, being held by spec- 
ulators. The cry that there are too many mouths 
to be fed by the world's supply is no more true 
than that there is more grown than could be used. 
It has been one of the anomalies of life that 
while thousands are starving in the cities, grain 
is being used for fuel by the farmers. It must 
ever be so while natural opportunities are in the 
hands of a few. It is a condition created by mo- 
nopoly, a monopoly in no danger at present of 
indictment for restraint of trade. 

But the capacity of the land now under culti- 
vation has never been tested. That is why agri- 
culture offers a field for the trained farmer to- 
day, unexcelled even by the possibilities of inven- 
tion. All men cannot be inventors like Edison, 
but he who succeeds in multiplying and improv- 
ing the ears of wheat which may be grown in a 



A LITTLE LAND 284 

AND A LIVING 

given area will be doing mankind a service that 
will not be reckoned lightly. 

The new agriculture is only in its infancy and 
the demand for farmers who can do what was 
once thought impossible is growing daily. The 
farmer who is content to go along in the old rut, 
adding acre to acre and merely scratching the 
surface of each, is as sure to be left behind in the 
race as the merchant who prefers sailing vessels 
to steamers, and who declines to use the tele- 
phone. 

That is why farming offers such an opportu- 
nity to the trained young man or woman. There 
are few plums in the law compared with the 
many aspirants; the supply of physicians is al- 
ready in excess of the world's real needs; there 
are more ministers living on insufficient incomes 
than are enjoying comfortable salaries, the aver- 
age being less than $450 per year ; there are few 
paying professorship for the educationalists: 
and even where opportunities in these lines do 
exist, they are accompanied by serious drawbacks 
such as boards of government, or political in- 
trigue. But the farmer is independent. People 



285 THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

must be fed and the demand for the best food 
increases daily; there is no limit to the possibil- 
ities of his profession. 

But what is the farmer to do who has remote, 
unsalable, perhaps exhausted land, and little cap- 
ital? He thinks he cannot move nearer to the 
city; his home, neighbors and associations are all 
tied to the land adscripti glebae; what shall 
he do to get out of the rut and into better condi- 
tions? 

If he is going behind year by year, he might 
better move before all is gone. If he is "just 
making a living," he can put the most of the farm 
into pasture or into hay, or let it run wild in the 
hope of a rise in land value, and specialize on his 
orchard, or on berries, or on a few acres of fine 
vegetables. He will not make any less than he 
makes now, and he will find some hope for him- 
self and give some hope to his boys. 

The most important thing to teach to-day is 
how to make the greatest profit from the least 
land. When the farmer has learned that, he will 
have no cause to fear the absorption of farms 
into large holdings. The value of the farm lies 



A LITTLE LAND 286 

AND A LIVING 

chiefly in the farmer, so that a very small tract 
by intensive cultivation will give a good living 
and provide for old age. Even two acres will do 
this and more than this. 

Discoveries in other fields have revolutionized 
methods and created fortunes. Agriculture of- 
fers unlimited opportunities to the bright boy or 
girl who makes a business of scientific farming 
or gardening. The world is waiting for the ag- 
ricultural discoverer. 

With the help now freely given by the Govern- 
ment, the agricultural colleges and experiment 
stations, you can help the world to great advances. 

It is necessary to know something about land 
and how to get the best returns from its cultiva- 
tion before you take up farming as a life work. 
It is therefore wiser to keep your present posi- 
tion until you have studied and become familiar 
with the valuable and helpful literature on agri- 
culture, and saved at least a small sum to meet 
emergencies. 

Go slowly at first. If you have no practical 
experience, try first to get a garden where you 
can give it your spare time without losing your 



287 THE PROFESSION 

OF FARMING 

present position. Then as you get skill and ex- 
perience you can give it your whole time and will 
not be helpless, if, for any reason, you lose your 
job. 

To show what has been done and what can be 
done on small areas ; that the life of the farmer, 
now so laborious and unprofitable, offers the 
widest opportunities for success under new meth- 
ods, is the object of this book. If it help any to 
take up the pursuit of agriculture as a business, 
if it draw even a few from the crowded, un- 
healthful life of the city tenement, to the free, 
health-giving life of the fields and gardens, if it 
afford a ray of hope to the discouraged toiler, it 
will have accomplished its purpose and fully re- 
paid its author. 



